Mild Upside Seen For Thai Stock Market

The Thai stock market on Wednesday halted the two-day slide in which it had stumbled more than 25 points or 1.7 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,380-point plateau and it may tick higher again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to higher and will be dependent on earnings news. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SET finished sharply higher on Wednesday with gains across the board, especially the food, finance, industrial, property, resource, service and technology sectors.

For the day, the index jumped 24.65 points or 1.82 percent to finish at 1,381.19 after trading between 1,354.98 and 1,382.80. Volume was 22.592 billion shares worth 53.773 billion baht. There were 408 gainers and 82 decliners, with 154 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info rose 0.47 percent, Airport of Thailand improved 1.69 percent, Asset World skyrocketed 5.41 percent, Bangkok Bank fell 0.34 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical jumped 1.83 percent, Bangkok Expressway added 0.68 percent, Banpu increased 0.78 percent, B Grimm soared 6.86 percent, BTS Group spiked 3.01 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods soared 4.09 percent, CP All Public rallied 2.42 percent, EA Energy rallied 4.08 percent, Gulf gained 0.57 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.83 percent, Krung Thai Bank climbed 1.23 percent, Krung Thai Card surged 5.29 percent, PTT Oil & Resource jumped 2.21 percent, PTT perked 0.74 percent, PTT Exploration and Production gathered 0.68 percent, PTT Global Chemical accelerated 2.94 percent, SCG Packaging spiked 2.42 percent, Siam Commercial Bank added 0.48 percent, Siam Concrete improved 1.12 percent, Thai Oil strengthened 1.43 percent, True Corporation surged 6.36 percent and TTB Bank was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street suggests mild upside as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday and largely stayed that way, although the Dow slipped into the red by the close.

The Dow dropped 99.06 points or 0.26 percent to finish at 37,806.39, while the NASDAQ gained 55.97 points or 0.36 percent to end at 15,481.92 and the S&P 500 perked 3.95 points or 0.08 percent to close at a fresh record high of 4,868.55.

Technology stocks helped lead the way higher in early trading on Wall Street, with shares of Netflix (NFLX) soaring by 10.7 percent after the streaming giant reported better than expected fourth quarter revenues.

Buying interest waned over the course of the session, reflecting renewed interest rate concerns amid a rebound by treasury yields. Yields moved lower early in the session but bounced higher following some upbeat U.S. economic data and a disappointing five-year note auction.

Oil prices climbed higher on Wednesday on data showing a larger-than-expected decline in U.S. crude inventories, while a weak dollar also contributed to the increase in oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March added $0.72 or nearly 1 percent at $75.09 a barrel.