Bargain Hunting May Lift Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved lower in four straight sessions, slipping almost 25 points or 1.9 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,370-point plateau and it's expected to stop the bleeding on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly positive on increased optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and flat and the U.S. bourses were sharply higher and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SET finished modestly lower on Wednesday following losses from the food, consumption, finance, industrial, property, resource and technology sectors.

For the day, the index shed 9.28 points or 0.67 percent to finish at 1,373.18 after trading between 1,372.28 and 1,386.67. Volume was 17.079 billion shares worth 54.666 billion baht. There were 353 decliners and 140 gainers, with 156 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info dropped 0.95 percent, while Thailand Airport gained 0.77 percent, Banpu sank 0.88 percent, Bangkok Bank skidded 1.07 percent, BTS Group advanced 0.93 percent, CP All Public weakened 1.33 percent, CP Axtra plunged 3.82 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods added 0.53 percent, Energy Absolute tanked 2.13 percent, Gulf and PTT Oil & Retail both lost 0.56 percent, Kasikornbank fell 0.40 percent, Krung Thai Bank shed 0.62 percent, Krung Thai Card gained 0.56 percent, PTT declined 1.45 percent, PTT Exploration and Production slumped 0.97 percent, PTT Global Chemical retreated 1.26 percent, SCG Packaging tumbled 1.69 percent, Siam Commercial Bank slid 0.43 percent, Siam Concrete plummeted 3.02 percent, True Corporation stumbled 1.89 percent, TTB Bank collected 0.54 percent and Asset World, B. Grimm, Thai Oil, Bangkok Dusit Medical and Bangkok Expressway were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street ends up positive as the major averages opened flat on Wednesday and spent most of the day that way before a late surge boosted them firmly into the green and to record closing highs.

The Dow surged 401.37 points or 1.03 percent to finish at 39,512.13, while the NASDAQ rallied 202.62 points or 1.25 percent to end at 16,369.41 and the S&P 500 gained 46.11 points or 0.89 percent to close at 5,224.62.

The rally on Wall Street came after the Fed announced its widely expected decision to leave interest rates unchanged but also maintained its forecast for three rate cuts this year - which had been in some doubt.

The Fed said it again maintained the target range for the federal funds rate at 5.25 to 5.50 percent, but the latest projections suggest Fed officials expect rates to be lowered to a range of 4.50 to 4.75 percent by the end of 2024.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Wednesday as traders chose to take some profits following recent gains, while a firm dollar also weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April slumped $1.79 or 2.1 percent at $81.68 a barrel.