Thai Stock Market Tipped To Bounce Higher Again On Thursday

The Thai stock market on Wednesday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had gained more than a dozen points or 0.7 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just beneath the 1,625-point plateau although it’s likely to rebound on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat following results of the FOMC’s monetary policy meeting. The European and U.S. markets were solidly higher and the Asian bourses figure to open in similar fashion.

The SET finished modestly lower on Wednesday following losses from the financial shares and the energy producers.

For the day, the index slid 6.98 points or 0.43 percent to finish at 1,623.66 after trading between 1,622.49 and 1,630.89. Volume was 25.492 billion shares worth 63.107 billion baht. There were 1,069 decliners and 454 gainers, with 577 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info shed 0.46 percent, while Thailand Airport retreated 1.62 percent, Bangkok Bank sank 0.83 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical and Krung Thai Card both dropped 0.88 percent, Bangkok Expressway lost 0.58 percent, CP All Public declined 1.27 percent, Energy Absolute skidded 0.87 percent, Gulf added 0.61 percent, Kasikornbank fell 0.36 percent, Krung Thai Bank and Siam Commercial Bank both weakened 0.80 percent, PTT Oil & Retail stumbled 0.98 percent, PTT slid 0.66 percent, PTT Exploration and Production surrendered 1.25 percent, PTT Global Chemical and True Corporation both dipped 0.43 percent, SCG Packaging slumped 0.78 percent, Siam Concrete was down 0.79 percent and TTB Bank, BTS Group and Charoen Pokphand Foods were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly positive as the major averages opened slightly lower on Wednesday but then surged in the afternoon to finish sharply higher.

The Dow soared 383.25 points or 1.08 percent to finish at 35,927.43, while the NASDAQ spiked 327.94 points or 2.15 percent to end at 15,565.58 and the S&P 500 jumped 75.76 points or 1.63 percent to close at 4,709.85.

The late-day rally on Wall Street came after the Fed announced its widely expected decision to accelerate the pace of reductions to its asset purchases program. Citing inflation developments and further improvement in the labor market, the Fed said it has decided to reduce the monthly pace of its net asset purchases by $30 billion per month, double the previously announced $15 billion per month.

The Fed said it expects similar reductions in the pace of net asset purchases will likely be appropriate each month, pointing to an end to the program next March. Analysts partly attributed the subsequent rally to relief that the Fed was not more aggressive in accelerating the timetable for halting its asset purchases.

Meanwhile, the Fed also announced its widely expected decision to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at zero to 0.25 percent. The central bank’s latest projections forecast as many three rate hikes in 2022 compared to the lone rate hike forecast in September.

Despite the prospect of sooner than expected rate hikes, analysts suggested traders were pleased with the increased level of certainty provided by the Fed’s latest projections.

Crude oil futures settled higher on Wednesday after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said crude inventories in the U.S. dropped by 4.6 million barrels last week. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for January ended up by $0.14 or 0.2 percent at $70.87 a barrel.

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