Thai Stock Market May Halt Its Slide On Friday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved lower in consecutive trading days, sinking more than 7 points or 0.5 percent in that span. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,370-point plateau although it's due for support on Friday.

The global forecast is upbeat on an improving outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The SET finished slightly lower on Thursday following losses from the food, consumption, industrial, property, resource and technology sectors.

For the day, the index shed 4.04 points or 0.29 percent to finish at 1,369.29 after trading between 1,367.88 and1,379.75. Volume was 12.638 billion shares worth 39.882 billion baht. There were 322 decliners and 167 gainers, with 171 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Thailand Airport gained 0.77 percent, while Asset World plunged 3.24 percent, Bangkok Bank fell 0.36 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical improved 0.86 percent, Bangkok Expressway sank 0.61 percent, B. Grimm dropped 0.93 percent, BTS Group gathered 0.83 percent, CP All Public strengthened 1.30 percent, Energy Absolute plummeted 3.23 percent, Gulf lost 0.60 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.38 percent, Krung Thai Card added 0.58 percent, PTT Oil & Retail surrendered 2.16 percent, PTT Exploration and Production rose 0.33 percent, PTT Global Chemical retreated 1.38 percent, SCG Packaging tanked 2.31 percent, Siam Commercial Bank advanced 0.94 percent, Thai Oil rallied 2.37 percent, True Corporation tumbled 1.71 percent, TTB Bank shed 0.57 percent and Charoen Pokphand Foods, Krung Thai Bank, Siam Concrete, Advanced Info, Banpu and PTT were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street suggests mild upside as the major averages opened lower on Thursday but quickly bounced higher and spent the rest of the day in positive territory.

The Dow jumped 331.36 points or 0.85 percent to finish at 39,387.76, while the NASDAQ gained 43.46 points or 0.27 percent to close at 16,346.26 and the S&P 500 added 26.41 points or 0.51 percent to end at 5,214.08.

The strength on Wall Street followed the release of a Labor Department report showing a bigger than expected increase by first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits last week.

The data added to recently renewed optimism that the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates in the coming months.

While the Fed is still widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged in June, the chances rates will be lower by September have reached 89.3 percent, according to CME Group's FedWatch Tool.

Oil prices moved higher on Thursday, lifted by optimism about the outlook for demand and on recent data showing a bigger than expected drop in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended higher by $0.27 at $79.26 a barrel.