Thai Stock Market May Test Resistance At 1,500 Points

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market turned lower again on Thursday, one day after halting the two-day slide in which it had slumped almost 30 points or 2 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,480-point plateau, although it's likely to move back to the upside again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive, with bargain hunting expected among easing treasury yields. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

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

For the day, the index sank 15.01 points or 1.00 percent to finish at 1,482.14 after trading between 1,481.52 and 1,505.69. Volume was 12.597 billion shares worth 59.098 billion baht. There were 370 decliners and 124 gainers, with 148 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info shed 0.44 percent, while Thailand Airport eased 0.36 percent, Asset World stumbled 2.60 percent, Banpu jumped 1.94 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.30 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical dove 1.85 percent, Bangkok Expressway dipped 0.60 percent, B. Grimm crashed 5.00 percent, BTS Group was down 1.33 percent, CP All Public fell 1.23 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods dropped 0.99 percent, Energy Absolute slumped 2.88 percent, Gulf weakened 1.11 percent, Krung Thai Card skidded 1.14 percent, PTT Oil & Retail sank 2.69 percent, PTT lost 1.47 percent, PTT Global Chemical tanked 2.17 percent, SCG Packaging plummeted 4.43 percent, Siam Commercial Bank tumbled 1.94 percent, Siam Concrete surrendered 1.97 percent, Thai Oil rallied 2.02 percent, True Corporation plunged 4.11 percent, TTB Bank retreated 1.74 percent and Kasikornbank, Krung Thai Bank and PTT Exploration and Production were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages shook off early weakness on Thursday and moved firmly higher, although ending well of the daily highs.

The Dow climbed 116.07 points or 0.35 percent to finish at 33,666.34, while the NASDAQ jumped 108.43 points or 0.83 percent to close at 13,201.28 and the S&P 500 rose 25.19 points or 0.59 percent to end at 4,299.70.

The strength on Wall Street reflected bargain hunting, as traders picked up stocks at reduced levels following recent weakness.

A downturn by treasury yields also contributed to the strength among stocks, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year note giving back ground after reaching its highest levels since October 2007.

In economic news, the Commerce Department said the pace of U.S. economic growth in the second quarter of 2023 was unrevised from the previous estimate. Also, the Labor Department noted a slight increase in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits last week.

Oil futures failed to hold gains and fell sharply on Thursday, due largely on profit taking. Oil prices rose to one-year high earlier in the day after recent data showing a drop in crude inventories in the U.S. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended down $1.97 or 2.1 percent at $91.71 a barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand will provide August numbers for current account later today; in July, the current account deficit was $0.400 billion, with exports down 5.5 percent on year and imports down 12.0 percent on year.