Thai Stock Market Expected To Halt Losing Streak

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has finished lower in seven straight sessions, plummeting more than 85 points or 6.3 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,260-point plateau and it's overdue for support on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests support ahead of key U.S. employment data later in the day. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

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

For the day, the index stumbled 24.67 points or 1.92 percent to finish at 1,262.07 after trading between 1,260.02 and 1,290.26. Volume was 8.874 billion shares worth 48.193 billion baht. There were 496 decliners and 65 gainers, with 113 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info declined 2.14 percent, while Thailand Airport sank 1.76 percent, Asset World tanked 3.31 percent, Banpu cratered 3.70 percent, Bangkok Bank rose 0.33 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical skidded 2.17 percent, Bangkok Expressway lost 1.50 percent, B. Grimm crashed 7.97 percent, BTS Group nosedived 4.03 percent, CP All Public dropped 5.00 percent, Energy Absolute and Charoen Pokphand Foods both plunged 5.71 percent, Gulf slumped 1.74 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.31 percent, Krung Thai Bank added 0.43 percent, PTT Oil & Retail tumbled 3.54 percent, PTT gained 0.83 percent, PTT Exploration and Production dipped 0.40 percent, PTT Global Chemical stumbled 3.92 percent, SCG Packaging surrendered 4.46 percent, Siam Commercial Bank improved 0.79 percent, Siam Concrete retreated 2.34 percent, Thai Oil plummeted 4.95 percent, True Corporation weakened 1.67 percent, TTB Bank fell 0.51 percent and Krung Thai Card was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened higher, although the Dow quickly turned lower and spent the rest of the day in the red.

The Dow stumbled 125.65 points or 0.28 percent to finish at 44,747.63, while the NASDAQ advanced 99.66 points or 0.51 percent to close at 19.971.99 and the S&P 500 added 22.09 points or 0.36 percent to end at 6,083.57.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report later today.

Traders will be watching the numbers, which could affect the Federal Reserve's outlook for interest rates.

A day ahead of the monthly jobs report, the Labor Department released a report showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week.

Crude oil saw further downside on Thursday as U.S. President Donald Trump repeated his pledge to increase U.S. oil production in an effort to lower prices. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery slid $0.42 or 0.6 percent to a one-month low of $70.61 a barrel.