Thai Stock Market: Resistance Expected At 1,400 Points

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, gathering more than 15 points or 1.1 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,395-point plateau although it may open under pressure on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on pessimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and little changed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SET finished modestly higher on Thursday following gains from the food, consumption, finance, industrial, resource, service and technology sectors.

For the day, the index gained 10.42 points or 0.75 percent to finish at 1,394.93 after trading between 1,383.26 and 1,395.88. Volume was 21.337 billion shares worth 46.476 billion baht. There were 297 gainers and 181 decliners, with 179 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info gained 0.48 percent, while Thailand Airport increased 0.76 percent, Asset World climbed 1.04 percent, Banpu accelerated 2.70 percent, Bangkok Expressway was up 1.84 percent, B. Grimm dropped 0.88 percent, CP All Public fell 0.43 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods added 0.53 percent, Energy Absolute spiked 2.84 percent, Gulf gathered 1.12 percent, Kasikornbank strengthened 1.21 percent, Krung Thai Bank collected 0.63 percent, Prime Road Power skyrocketed 7.02 percent, PTT Oil & Retail jumped 1.67 percent, PTT perked 1.46 percent, PTT Exploration and Production improved 2.00 percent, PTT Global Chemical soared 3.21 percent, Siam Commercial Bank rallied 1.32 percent, Thai Oil advanced 2.16 percent, True Corporation surged 3.18 percent, TTB Bank shed 0.54 percent and Bangkok Bank, Krung Thai Card, SCG Packaging, Siam Concrete, Bangkok Dusit Medical and BTS Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened slightly higher on Thursday but quickly headed south and stayed modestly lower for the rest of the day.

The Dow dropped 137.66 points or 0.35 percent to finish at 28,905.66, while the NASDAQ sank 49.24 points or 0.30 percent to close at 16,128.53 and the S&P 500 fell 14.83 points or 0.29 percent to end at 5,150.48.

The weakness on Wall Street reflected renewed concerns about the Federal Reserve further postponing its first interest rate cut following the release of hotter-than-expected producer price inflation data for February.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department released a report showing retail sales rebounded in February, although the increase fell short of estimates.

Oil prices rose sharply on Thursday, extending gains from the previous day as the International Energy Agency (IEA) upwardly raised its global demand growth forecast. West Texas International Crude oil futures for April ended higher by $1.54 or 1.9 percent at $81.26 a barrel.