Thai Stock Market May Turn Lower Again On Thursday

The Thai stock market on Wednesday snapped the two-day slide in which it had dipped more than 5 points or 0.3 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,385-point plateau although it may see renewed selling pressure on Thursday.

The global forecast is mixed and flat amid a lack of catalysts, with expected weakness from the technology stocks likely offset by gains from the oil companies. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The SET finished modestly higher on Wednesday following gains from the finance, industrial, property, resource and service sectors.

For the day, the index rose 4.88 points or 0.35 percent to finish at 1,384.51 after trading between 1,378.43 and 1,388.32. Volume was 19.906 billion shares worth 40.329 billion baht. There were 276 gainers and 182 decliners, with 191 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info dropped 0.95 percent, while Thailand Airport picked up 0.76 percent, Asset World rallied 1.05 percent, Banpu jumped 1.83 percent, Bangkok Bank improved 0.72 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical sank 0.85 percent, Bangkok Expressway increased 0.62 percent, B. Grimm tumbled 1.74 percent, BTS Group skyrocketed 4.85 percent, CP All Public was up 1.32 percent, Energy Absolute gained 0.71 percent, Gulf skidded 1.10 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.41 percent, Krung Thai Bank added 0.63 percent, Krung Thai Card strengthened 1.66 percent, PTT Oil & Retail gathered 0.56 percent, PTT perked 0.74 percent, PTT Exploration and Production accelerated 1.69 percent, PTT Global Chemical surged 4.00 percent, SCG Packaging soared 3.45 percent, Siam Commercial Bank advanced 0.89 percent, Siam Concrete rose 0.37 percent, Thai Oil spiked 3.13 percent, True Corporation increased 0.64 percent, TTB Bank climbed 1.09 percent and Charoen Pokphand Foods was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday and finished the same way, little changed.

The Dow added 37.83 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 39,043.32, while the NASDAQ sank 87.87 points or 0.54 percent to close at 16,177.77 and the S&P 500 fell 9.96 points or 0.19 percent to end at 5.165.31.

The pullback by the Nasdaq partly reflected weakness in the tech sector, with AI darling Nvidia (NVDA) slumping by 1.1 percent.

Overall trading activity remained subdued ahead of several key reports in the coming days, including producer prices, jobless claims, industrial production and retail sales.

Oil prices rose sharply on Wednesday after data showed an unexpected drop in U.S. crude inventories last week, while supply disruptions in Russia also contributed to the rise in oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April rose $2.16 or 2.8 percent at $79.72 a barrel.