Thai Stock Market May Erase Thursday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Thursday wrote a finish to the three-day winning streak in which it had gained almost 10 points or 0.7 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,390-point plateau although it's expected to rebound again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to higher ahead of key employment data from the United States later today. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets also figure to track higher.

The SET finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the food, finance, industrial, resource and technology sectors.

For the day, the index sank 10.82 points or 0.78 percent to finish at 1,378.73 after trading between 1,373.34 and 1,384.52. Volume was 11.213 billion shares worth 41.666 billion baht. There were 327 decliners and 153 gainers, with 167 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info slid 0.45 percent, while Banpu plunged 5.41 percent, Bangkok Bank shed 0.67 percent, Bangkok Expressway dipped 1.23 percent, B. Grimm advanced 0.94 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods retreated 1.56 percent, Energy Absolute tumbled 1.68 percent, Gulf skidded 1.09 percent, Krung Thai Bank lost 0.54 percent, Krung Thai Card fell 0.56 percent, PTT Oil & Retail was down 0.49 percent, PTT slumped 0.70 percent, PTT Exploration and Production weakened 1.75 percent, PTT Global Chemical and TTB Bank both stumbled 1.27 percent, SCG Packaging sank 0.65 percent, Siam Commercial Bank dipped 0.25 percent, Siam Concrete climbed 1.03 percent, Thai Oil surrendered 1.94 percent, True Corporation plummeted 4.50 percent and Kasikornbank, Asset World, CP All Public, Bangkok Dusit Medical, Thailand Airport and BTS Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher on Thursday and largely stayed that way throughout the session.

The Dow gained 62.95 points or 0.17 percent to finish at 36,117.38, while the NASDAQ surged 193.28 points or 1.37 percent to end at 14,339.99 and the S&P 500 added 36.25 points or 0.80 percent to close at 4,585.59.

The strength on Wall Street reflected ongoing optimism about the outlook for interest rates ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report later today.

The jobs report could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting next week.

While the Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders will be looking to the jobs data to provide further evidence the central bank could cut rates as soon as March 2024.

Oil futures settled slightly lower Thursday amid lingering uncertainty about the outlook for energy demand due to global economic slowdown. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended down $0.04 at $69.34 a barrel.