Thai Stock Market May Test Resistance At 1,400 Points

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Thursday halted the four-day losing streak in which it had stumbled almost 25 points or 1.9 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,385-point plateau and it's called to open to the upside again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive on optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to follow suit.

The SET finished sharply higher on Thursday following gains from the food, consumer, finance, industrial, property, resource and technology sectors.

For the day, the index climbed 14.44 points or 1.05 percent to finish at 1,387.62 after trading between 1,382.99 and 1,388.66. Volume was 15.415 billion shares worth 43.609 billion baht. There were 320 gainers and 171 decliners, with 171 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info improved 1.44 percent, while Thailand Airport rose 0.38 percent, Asset World strengthened 1.55 percent, Banpu advanced 0.88 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.72 percent, Bangkok Expressway gathered 0.61 percent, BTS Group accelerated 0.93 percent, CP All Public retreated 1.35 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods skidded 1.06 percent, Energy Absolute soared 2.90 percent, Gulf spiked 1.12 percent, Kasikornbank shed 0.40 percent, Krung Thai Card added 0.56 percent, PTT Oil & Retail gained 0.56 percent, PTT perked 0.74 percent, PTT Exploration and Production increased 0.98 percent, PTT Global Chemical jumped 1.95 percent, SCG Packaging rallied 1.72 percent, Siam Concrete perked 0.39 percent, True Corporation surged 3.21 percent, TTB Bank climbed 1.08 percent and Krung Thai Bank, Siam Commercial Bank, B. Grimm, Thai Oil and Bangkok Dusit Medical were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street suggests mild upside as the major averages opened modestly higher on Thursday and remained in the green throughout the session, ending at fresh record closing highs.

The Dow rallied 269.24 points or 0.68 percent to finish at 39,781.37, while the NASDAQ added 32.43 points or 0.20 percent to close at 16,401.84 and the S&P 500 gained 16.91 points or 0.32 percent to end at 5,241.53.

The early strength on Wall Street came as stocks continued to benefit from positive reaction to Wednesday's monetary policy announcement by the Federal Reserve.

While the Fed left interest rates unchanged, as widely expected, the central bank also maintained its forecast for three interest rate cuts this year.

In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department noted a slight drop by first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits last week. Also, the National Association of Realtors said existing home sales unexpectedly soared in February.

Crude oil futures settled lower on Thursday, weighed down by a stronger dollar and weak gasoline demand in the U.S. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May dipped $0.20 at $81.07 a barrel.