Thai Stock Market Predicted To Find Traction On Friday

The Thai stock market has tracked lower in back-to-back sessions, sinking almost 45 points or 3 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,470-point plateau although it’s likely to stop the bleeding on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets calls for a technical rebound after heavy losses and highly speculative trading in the previous session. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SET finished sharply lower on Thursday following losses from the financial shares, cement companies and energy producers.

For the day, the index tumbled 29.62 points or 1.98 percent to finish at 1,468.51 after trading between 1,467.74 and 1,492.00. Volume was 28.720 billion shares worth 92.614 billion baht. There were 1,402 decliners and 332 gainers, with 246 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info dropped 0.85 percent, while Thailand Airport shed 0.41 percent, Asset World tanked 2.54 percent, Bangkok Asset Management skidded 1.41 percent, Bangkok Bank tumbled 2.52 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical retreated 0.93 percent, Bangkok Expressway lost 0.61 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods declined 1.77 percent, Gulf surrendered 1.49 percent, Kasikornbank gave away 2.39 percent, Krung Thai Bank sank 1.69 percent, PTT fell 1.91 percent, PTT Exploration and Production plunged 1.82 percent, PTT Global Chemical plummeted 2.44 percent, Siam Commercial Bank weakened 1.84 percent, Siam Concrete slid 2.81 percent, TMB Bank was down 2.63 percent and BTS Group was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is solid as stocks opened higher on Thursday and remained in the green throughout the session after two days of weakness.

The Dow climbed 300.19 points or 0.99 percent to finish at 30,603.36, while the NASDAQ gained 66.56 points or 0.50 percent to end at 13,337.16 and the S&P 500 added 36.61 points or 0.98 percent to close at 3,787.38.

The early rally on Wall Street followed a report from the Labor Department showing a bigger than expected drop in first-time claims for U.S. jobless benefits last week.

Also, the Commerce Department said economic growth matched estimates in the fourth quarter of 2020, and also that new home sales in the U.S. rebounded in December after falling in four consecutive months.

On the corporate scene, shares of Apple (AAPL) and Tesla (TSLA) slumped after disappointing earnings news, while heavily shorted stocks like GameStop (GME), AMC Entertainment (AMC) and Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) gave back ground after skyrocketing in the previous session.

Crude oil futures settled lower on Thursday on worries about the outlook for energy demand due to rising coronavirus cases, tighter lockdown restrictions and delays in vaccine supplies. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March sank $0.51 or 1 percent at $52.34 a barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand will see November numbers for retail sales later today, as well as December figures for unemployment, current account and its coincident index. In October, retail sales tumbled 6.8 percent on year. In November, the jobless rate was 2.0 percent, the current account deficit was $1.5 billion and the coincident index score was 126.1.

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