Thai Stock Market Poised To Open In The Green

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, sinking more than 10 points or 0.7 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,335-point plateau and it's likely to find support on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat, with support expected from oil, gold and technology stocks. The European and U.S. markets were up on Thursday and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The SET finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the food, consumer, finance and technology sectors, while the property and industrial stocks offered support.

For the day, the index shed 7.55 points or 0.56 percent to finish at 1,335.54 after trading between 1m333.27 and 1,345.76. Volume was 7.107 billion shares worth 29.582 billion baht. There were 248 decliners and 180 gainers, with 228 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info perked 0.35 percent, while Thailand Airport increased 0.45 percent, Banpu dropped 0.98 percent, Bangkok Expressway sank 2.13 percent, B. Grimm retreated 1.28 percent, BTS Group slumped 2.36 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods rose 0.44 percent, Energy Absolute soared 3.92 percent, Gulf lost 0.42 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.94 percent, Krung Thai Card tumbled 1.93 percent, PTT Oil & Retail improved 0.85 percent, PTT Exploration and Production gained 0.40 percent, PTT Global Chemical added 0.46 percent, SCG Packaging surged 4.19 percent, Siam Commercial Bank fell 0.40 percent, Siam Concrete jumped 1.95 percent, Thai Oil skidded 0.95 percent, True Corporation advanced 0.85 percent, TTB Bank shed 0.51 percent and Bangkok Bank, Krung Thai Bank, Asset World, PTT, CP All Public and Bangkok Dusit Medical were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher on Thursday, dipped into the red a few times but all ended above the unchanged line.

The Dow jumped 168.61 points or 0.38 percent to finish at 44,882.13, while the NASDAQ added 49.43 points or 0.25 percent to close at 19,681.75 and the S&P 500 gained 31.86 points or 0.53 percent to end at 6,071.17.

The major averages moved sharply lower late in the session after President Donald Trump said he would follow through on his threat to impose 25 percent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico on February 1.

However, the major averages rebounded going into the close, reflecting the significant volatility from earnings news throughout the session.

Companies such as IBM Corp. (IBM) and Meta Platforms (META) posted quarterly results that beat expectations, while Microsoft (MSFT) and UPS (UPS) has decent earnings but provided disappointing guidance.

Oil futures settled marginally higher on Thursday on a likely drop in supplies amid a potential tariff on Canadian and Mexican goods, while a weaker dollar also provided support. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for March rose $0.11 or 0.15 percent at $72.73 a barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand is scheduled to release December numbers for industrial production, current account, imports, exports and trade balance later today. In November, industrial production was down 3.58 percent on year, while the current account saw a surplus of $2.00 billion. Imports were up 2.3 percent on year and exports rose an annual 9.1 percent for a trade surplus of $2.00 billion.