Thai Stock Market Tipped To Open In The Red On Friday

(RTTNews) - Ahead of Thursday's holiday for King Bhumibol's birthday, the Thai stock market had ended the two-day winning streak in which it had advanced almost 30 points or 2 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,450-point plateau and it's looking at another soft start again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to lower ahead of key U.S. employment data later today. The European markets were slightly higher and the U.S. bourses were slightly lower and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SET finished slightly lower on Wednesday as losses from the industrial, resource and technology sectors were mitigated by support from the food, consumer and financial shares.

For the day, the index slipped 3.94 points or 0.27 percent to finish at 1,450.82 after trading between 1,448.54 and 1,457.71. Volume was 9.694 billion shares worth 37.977 billion baht. There were 252 gainers and 227 decliners, with 186 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info tanked 2.36 percent, while Thailand Airport sank 0.81 percent, Asset World rallied 1.64 percent, Banpu and Siam Commercial Bank both jumped 1.72 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.66 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical dropped 0.96 percent, Bangkok Expressway gained 0.68 percent, B. Grimm dipped 0.46 percent, BTS Group soared 2.65 percent, CP All Public rose 0.39 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods shed 0.41 percent, Energy Absolute surged 4.90 percent, Gulf plunged 3.44 percent, Kasikornbank advanced 0.98 percent, Krung Thai Bank strengthened 1.48 percent, Krung Thai Card fell 0.52 percent, PTT Oil & Retail retreated 1.40 percent, PTT Exploration and Production eased 0.39 percent, PTT Global Chemical dropped 0.98 percent, SCG Packaging stumbled 1.39 percent, Siam Concrete slid 0.54 percent, True Corporation accelerated 1.68 percent, TTB Bank lost 0.56 percent and PTT and Thai Oil were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened flat on Thursday and hugged the line for much of the day before slipping under water heading into the close.

The Dow slumped248.33 points or 0.55 percent to finish at 44,765.71, while the NASDAQ shed 34.86 points or 0.18 percent to close at 19,700.26 and the S&P 600 fell 11.38 points or 0.19 percent to end at 6,075.11.

Overall trading activity was somewhat subdued as traders were reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report later today.

The jobs data could impact the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's next monetary policy meeting later this month.

While traders have recently expressed greater confidence the Fed will lower rates by another 25 basis points at the December meeting, there remains uncertainty about the likelihood of continued rate cuts at future meetings.

Crude oil prices dipped on Thursday, weighed by weak demand from China and rising production in the United States - although the downside was limited by OPEC's decision to delay a production increase. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January fell $0.24 or 0.4 percent at $68.30 a barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand will release November numbers for consumer prices later today; in October, overall inflation was up 0.83 percent on year and core CPI rose an annual 0.77 percent.