Thai Shares Tipped To Open In The Red On Friday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market turned lower again on Thursday, one day after snapping the three-day losing streak in which it had slumped almost 25 points or 1.6 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,450-point plateau and it's expected to open under pressure again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on 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 as losses from the finance, industrial and property sectors were mitigated by support from the food and technology companies.

For the day, the index dipped 1.35 points or 0.09 percent to finish at 1,450.12 after trading between 1,441.15 and 1,461.99. Volume was 14.419 billion shares worth 59.358 billion baht. There were 292 decliners and 218 gainers, with 165 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info dipped 0.35 percent, while Thailand Airport tumbled 2.09 percent, Asset World declined 1.17 percent, Bangkok Expressway lost 0.65 percent, CP All Public rallied 2.38 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods fell 0.40 percent, Energy Absolute plummeted 4.88 percent, Gulf jumped 1.98 percent, Kasikornbank retreated 1.35 percent, Krung Thai Bank dropped 0.97 percent, Krung Thai Card shed 0.53 percent, PTT Oil & Retail surrendered 2.08 percent, PTT sank 0.76 percent, PTT Exploration and Production weakened 1.23 percent, PTT Global Chemical tanked 2.43 percent, Siam Commercial Bank slid 0.44 percent, Siam Concrete slumped 1.02 percent, Thai Oil added 0.61 percent, True Corporation stumbled 1.67 percent, TTB Bank skidded 1.14 percent and Bangkok Bank, SCG Packaging, Banpu, B. Grimm, Bangkok Dusit Medical and BTS Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened flat on Thursday but quickly fell into the red and stayed that way, ending near session lows.

The Dow dropped 207.33 points or 0.47 percent to finish at 43,750.86, while the NASDAQ slumped 123.07 points or 0.64 percent to close at 19,107.65 and the S&P 500 sank 36.21 points or 0.60 percent to end at 5,949.17.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street late in the session came after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank does not "need to be in a hurry to lower rates" due to the strength of the economy.

Powell's remarks came as the latest batch of U.S. economy data generated some uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates after the Labor Department said first-time claims for U.S. jobless benefits unexpectedly edged lower last week.

While the Fed is still widely expected to lower interest rates by a quarter point next month, there is some concern that sticky inflation will lead the central bank to slow the pace of its rate cuts in early 2025.

Oil futures settled higher on Thursday, supported by data showing a drop in gasoline stockpiles. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December closed up $0.27 or about 0.4 percent at $68.70 a barrel.