Rebound Anticipated For Thai Stock Market

The Thai stock market on Thursday ended the three-day winning streak in which it had picked up almost 15 points or 0.9 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just above the 1,625-point plateau although it figures to bounce higher again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic following encouraging inflation data from the United States. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SET finished slightly lower on Thursday following losses from the energy producers and a mixed picture from the financial shares.

For the day, the index eased 1.00 point or 0.06 percent to finish at 1,625.27 after trading between 1,623.57 and 1,636.22. Volume was 33.011 billion shares worth 105.961 billion baht. There were 1,112 decliners and 510 gainers, with 465 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Thailand Airport added 0.39 percent, while Asset World dropped 0.98 percent, Bangkok Asset Management surged 5.88 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.41 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical spiked 3.64 percent, Bangkok Expressway rallied 2.40 percent, BTS Group jumped 2.09 percent, Kasikornbank fell 0.39 percent, Krung Thai Card retreated 1.38 percent, PTT Oil & Retail declined 1.63 percent, PTT Exploration and Production sank 0.83 percent, PTT Global Chemical plunged 2.01 percent, SCG Packaging was down 0.88 percent, Siam Commercial Bank lost 0.95 percent, TTB Bank was down 0.85 percent and Advanced Info, Charoen Pokphand Foods, Gulf, Krung Thai Bank, PTT and Siam Concrete all were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as stocks opened higher on Thursday, tumbled shortly thereafter but rebounded to end in the green.

The Dow added 19.10 points or 0.06 percent to finish at 34,466.24, while the NASDAQ jumped 108.58 points or 0.78 percent to end at 14,020.33 and the SYP 500 rose 19.63 points or 0.47 percent to close at 4,239.18.

The higher close on Wall Street followed the release of a highly anticipated Labor Department report showing a bigger than expected increase in consumer prices in May.

Also, the Labor Department reported another modest decrease in first-time claims for unemployment benefits last week.

Crude oil futures moved higher on Thursday amid optimism energy demand will pick up gradually following an Energy Information Administration (EIA) report that showed a big drop in U.S. crude stockpiles last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended up by $0.33 or 0.5 percent at $70.29 a barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand will see May results for its consumer confidence index later today; in April, the index score was 46.0.