Thai Shares Expected To Bounce Higher Again On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Wednesday ended the five-day winning streak in which it had advanced more than 35 points or 2.4 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just beneath the 1,415-point plateau although it's likely to see renewed support on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on continued optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

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

For the day, the index shed 9.46 points or 0.66 percent to finish at 1,414.15 after trading between 1,407.37 and 1,422.02. There were 258 decliners and 219 gainers, with 161 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info climbed 0.93 percent, while Thailand Airport stumbled 1.86 percent, Banpu tumbled 1.88 percent, Bangkok Bank fell 0.33 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical dropped 0.93 percent, Bangkok Expressway was down 0.62 percent, B. Grimm plummeted 3.70 percent, BTS Group improved 0.70 percent, CP All Public slumped 0.44 percent, Energy Absolute surrendered 1.58 percent, Gulf tanked 2.14 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.38 percent, Krung Thai Card lost 0.53 percent, PTT Oil & Retail added 0.50 percent, PTT Exploration and Production slid 0.31 percent, PTT Global Chemical sank 0.65 percent, Siam Concrete rose 0.34 percent, Thai Oil advanced 0.97 percent, TTB Bank shed 0.64 percent and Charoen Pokphand Foods, Krung Thai Bank, Siam Commercial Bank, SCG Packaging, Asset World, True Corporation and PTT were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday and remained in the green throughout the session.

The Dow jumped 184.74 points or 0.53 percent to finish at 35,273.03, while the NASDAQ gained 65.88 points or 0.46 percent to end at 14,265.86 and the S&P 500 rose 18.43 points or 0.41 percent to close at 4,556.62.

The strength on Wall Street came as continued optimism about the outlook for interest rates contributed to renewed buying interest following the previous day's pullback.

While the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting failed to provide any indications the central bank plans to cut interest rates in the near future, CME Group's FedWatch Tool suggests the next move will be a rate cut in mid-2024.

In economic news, the Labor Department said first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week. Also, the Commerce Department said new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods pulled back by much more than expected in October.

Crude oil futures settled lower Wednesday after data showed a notable increase in crude inventory in the U.S., and after OPEC postponed a key meeting by four days. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended down $0.67 or 0.86 percent at $77.10 a barrel.