Thai Stock Market May Open Under Pressure

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Thursday ended the three-day winning streak in which it had more than 20 points or 1.3 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1m520-point plateau and it may take further damage on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky, with earnings news possibly steering the markets. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mostly lower and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

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

For the day, the index dropped 15.46 points or 1.01 percent to finish at the daily low of 1,521.18 after peaking at 1,541.49. Volume was 12.022 billion shares worth 45.346 billion baht. There were 364 decliners and 95 gainers, with 179 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info fell 0.45 percent, while Thailand Airport and Bangkok Dusit Medical both crashed 1.74 percent, Asset World dropped 0.89 percent, Banpu stumbled 2.12 percent, B. Grimm lost 0.68 percent, BTS Group was down 1.30 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods shed 0.51 percent, Energy Absolute sank 0.88 percent, Gulf skidded 1.02 percent, Kasikornbank sank 0.74 percent, Krung Thai Bank collected 1.00 percent, Krung Thai Card retreated 1.61 percent, PTT Oil & Retail slumped 0.93 percent, PTT surrendered 1.45 percent, PTT Exploration and Production weakened 1.27 percent, PTT Global Chemical plummeted 5.13 percent, SCG Packaging tanked 3.16 percent, Siam Concrete declined 1.54 percent, Thai Oil dove 1.59 percent, True Corporation tumbled 2.13 percent, TTB Bank climbed 1.23 percent and Bangkok Bank, Siam Commercial Bank, CP All Public and Bangkok Expressway were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is inconsistent and uninspiring as the major averages opened and closed mixed on Thursday; the Dow opened higher and stayed that way, while the NASDAQ and S&P opened lower and remained in the red throughout.

The Dow climbed 163.97 points or 0.47 percent to finish at 35,225.18, while the NASDAQ tumbled 294.71 points or 2.05 percent to close at 14,063.31 and the S&P 500 sank 30.85 points or 0.68 percent to end at 4,534.87.

The sharp pullback by the Nasdaq came amid a negative reaction to earnings news from companies like Netflix (NFLX) and Tesla (TSLA). On the other hand, the narrower Dow benefitted from a spike from Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) after solid earnings news.

Traders also reacted to a Labor Department report showing that first-time claims for U.S. jobless benefits unexpectedly dipped last week.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Thursday and lifted the August series futures contract to a positive close on the expiration day amid fears of declining supplies from Russia. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August settled at $75.63 a barrel, gaining $0.28 or 0.4 percent.