Higher Open Called For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved lower in consecutive trading days, surrendering almost 30 points or 2.2 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,360-point plateau although it nay see bargain hunting on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky as the U.S. markets were shuttered on Thursday - while the European markets were roughly flat with an upside bias, and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The SET finished sharply lower on Thursday following losses from the food, consumer, finance, industrial, property, resource, service and technology sectors.

For the day, the index tumbled 24.75 points or 1.78 percent to finish at 1,362.97 after trading between 1,360.27 and 1,385.34. Volume was 10.781 billion shares worth 46.901 billion baht. There were 481 decliners and 71 gainers, with 115 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info slumped 2.82 percent, while Thailand Airport slipped 0.84 percent, Asset World retreated 2.33 percent, Banpu cratered 4.63 percent, Bangkok Bank dropped 1.29 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical was down 1.25 percent, B. Grimm tumbled 3.35 percent, BTS Group crashed 4.24 percent, CP All Public slid 1.34 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods stumbled 2.24 percent, Energy Absolute climbed 1.10 percent, Gulf sank 1.29 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.63 percent, Krung Thai Bank shed 0.92 percent, Krung Thai Card lost 1.00 percent, PTT Oil & Retail skidded 2.46 percent, PTT Exploration and Production fell 2.79 percent, PTT Global Chemical plummeted 6.05 percent, SCG Packaging tanked 3.80 percent, Siam Commercial Bank dipped 0.42 percent, Siam Concrete plunged 4.05 percent, Thai Oil dipped 0.99 percent, True Corporation weakened 1.80 percent, TTB Bank surrendered 2.70 percent and PTT and Bangkok Expressway were unchanged.

There is no lead from Wall Street as the U.S. financial markets were closed on Thursday in honor of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who died in late December at age 100.

Investors are looking ahead to the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report later today, which will potentially provide additional clarity about the strength of the labor market.

Oil prices moved higher Thursday amid optimism about the outlook for global oil demand, and potential supply shortage due to the sanctions on Iranian and Russian crude exports. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February settled higher by $0.60 or 0.82 percent at $73.92 a barrel.