Thai Shares Tipped To End Losing Streak

The Thai stock market has tracked lower in four straight sessions, slumping almost 50 points or 3.1 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,510-point plateau although it’s due for support on Friday.

The global forecast is murky on concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mostly higher and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SET finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the food, finance, energy, industrial and technology sectors.

For the day, the index sank 12.81 points or 0.84 percent to finish at 1,509.31 after trading between 1,506.09 and 1,525.26. Volume was 13.504 billion shares worth 46.840 billion baht. There were 380 decliners and 138 gainers, with 130 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info tumbled 1.85 percent, while Thailand Airport dipped 0.34 percent, Banpu added 0.55 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical sank 0.87 percent, B. Grimm declined 1.39 percent, CP All Public surrendered 1.98 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods tanked 2.87 percent, Energy Absolute stumbled 1.30 percent, Gulf plunged 3.33 percent, Kasikornbank fell 0.38 percent, Krung Thai Bank shed 0.51 percent, PTT Oil & Retail slumped 1.42 percent, PTT Exploration and Production slid 0.33 percent, PTT Global Chemical retreated 1.32 percent, Siam Commercial Bank dropped 0.93 percent, Siam Concrete gained 0.62 percent, Thai Oil skidded 1.11 percent, True Corporation plummeted 8.40 percent and TTB Bank, Bangkok Bank, Krung Thai Card, SCG Packaging, Asset World, PTT, Bangkok Expressway and BTS Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as the major averages opened lower on Thursday and spent much of the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before finally ending mixed.

The Dow dipped 4.81 points or 0.01 percent to finish at 33,946.71, while the NASDAQ jumped 128.41 points or 0.95 percent to end ay 13,630.61 and the S&P 500 added 16.20 points or 0.37 percent to close at 4,381.89.

Buying interest may also have been generated in reaction to a Labor Department report showing initial jobless claims held at their highest level since October 2021 last week.

With the Federal Reserve repeatedly warning about the impact of labor market tightness, the data may have added to optimism the central bank will not follow through on plans to continue raising interest rates.

Lingering concerns about rates limited the upside, however, as the Bank of England raised rates more aggressively, hiking rates by a bigger-than-expected 50 basis points.

Crude oil prices fell sharply Thursday as interest rate hikes and inflation concerns raised concerns about the outlook for fuel demand, while a stronger greenback also weighed. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended lower by $3.02 or 4.1 percent at $69.51 a barrel.