Thai Stock Market Poised To End Slide

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved lower in two straight sessions, giving up almost 20 points or 1.2 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just beneath the 1,650-point plateau although it's likely to stop the bleeding on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on easing concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian markets figure to follow that lead.

The SET finished slightly lower on Wednesday following losses from the financial shares and a mixed picture from the energy producers. For the day, the index slid 5.37 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 1,647.39 after trading between 1,642.97 and 1,657.53. Volume was 22.541 billion shares worth 114.246 billion baht. There were 1,268 decliners and 330 gainers, with 415 stocks finishing unchanged. Among the actives, Advanced Info improved 0.48 percent, while Thailand Airport jumped 1.74 percent, Bangkok Bank lost 0.61 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical advanced 0.88 percent, Bangkok Expressway skidded 1.04 percent, B. Grimm soared 2.45 percent, BTS Group slid 0.61 percent, CP All Public and Siam Commercial Bank both sank 0.75 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods retreated 1.30 percent, Gulf gained 0.46 percent, Kasikornbank shed 0.70 percent, Krung Thai Card stumbled 1.72 percent, PTT Oil & Retail surged 5.09 percent, PTT Exploration and Production tanked 2.17 percent, PTT Global Chemical tumbled 1.98 percent, SCG Packaging added 0.48 percent, Siam Concrete weakened 0.88 percent, Thai Oil surrendered 1.31 percent, TTB Bank slumped 0.71 percent and Krung Thai Bank, Asset World, Banpu, Energy Absolute, PTT and True Corporation were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street ends up positive as the major averages opened sharply lower on Wednesday but improved steadily throughout the session and finished in the green.

The Dow added 38.78 points or 0.11 percent to finish at 34,128.05, while the NASDAQ jumped 110.45 points or 0.92 percent to end at 12,070.59 and the S&P 500 rose 11.47 points or 0.28 percent to close at 4,147.60.

The early weakness on Wall Street reflected ongoing concerns about the outlook for interest rates following the release of upbeat retail sales data.

The sharp increase in retail sales has led to concerns the Federal Reserve will be encouraged to continue aggressively raising interest rates in an effort to combat inflation.

The concerns about rates may have been partly offset by a separate report from the Federal Reserve showing U.S. industrial production was unexpectedly unchanged in January.

Crude oil prices came off daily lows but still moved solidly lower on Wednesday, hurt by a stronger U.S. dollar and a spike in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate was down $0.47 or 0.6 percent to $78.59 per barrel.