Little Movement Seen For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has finished lower in four straight sessions, sinking more than 20 points or 1.2 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just beneath the 1,670-point plateau and it's tipped to open under pressure again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on continuing concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SET finished slightly lower on Thursday following mixed performances from the financial shares and the energy producers.

For the day, the index eased 1.17 points or 0.07 percent to finish at 1,669.17 after trading between 1,656.74 and 1,672.09. Volume was 20.748 billion shares worth 63.498 billion baht. There were 941 decliners and 598 gainers, with 492 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info rallied 2.05 percent, while Thailand Airport lost 0.68 percent, Asset World weakened 0.87 percent, Banpu dropped 0.91 percent, Bangkok Bank gained 0.63 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical declined 1.69 percent, Bangkok Expressway skidded 1.04 percent, B. Grimm fell 0.62 percent, BTS Group added 0.61 percent, CP All Public improved 0.75 percent, Energy Absolute dipped 0.28 percent, Gulf shed 0.47 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.70 percent, Krung Thai Bank increased 0.58 percent, Krung Thai Card was down 0.86 percent, PTT Oil & Retail tumbled 1.80 percent, PTT sank 0.76 percent, PTT Exploration and Production retreated 1.21 percent, PTT Global Chemical strengthened 1.00 percent, SCG Packaging slid 0.47 percent, Siam Commercial Bank advanced 0.98 percent, Thai Oil slumped 1.31 percent, TTB Bank gave away 0.71 percent and Siam Concrete was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street ends up negative as the major averages were unable to hold on to early gains on Thursday, sinking into the red by midday and ending at daily lows.

The Dow tumbled 249.13 points or 0.73 percent to finish at 33,699.88, while the NASDAQ slumped 120.94 points or 1.02 percent to close at 11,789.58 and the S&P 500 sank 36.36 points or 0.88 percent to end at 4,081.50.

The sharp pullback on Wall Street partly reflected ongoing interest rate concerns following hawkish comments by some Federal Reserve officials.

In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department said first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rebounded by slightly more than expected last week.

Crude oil futures ended lower Thursday as rising crude inventories in the U.S. and prospects of more interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended lower by $0.41 or 0.5 percent at $78.06 a barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand will see January results for its consumer confidence index later today; in December, the index score was 49.7.