Thai Stock Market Predicted To Open In The Green

The Thai stock market on Thursday wrote a finish to the three-day slide in which it had dropped almost 30 points or 1.8 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,670-point plateau and it’s likely to see additional support on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat, with support expected especially from oil and technology stocks. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian markets are expected to open in similar fashion.

The SET finished modestly higher on Thursday following gains from the financial shares and the energy producers.

For the day, the index added 5.85 points or 0.35 percent to finish at 1,667.74 after trading between 1,658.47 and 1,669.04. Volume was 22.363 billion shares worth 79.291 billion baht. There were 988 gainers and 687 decliners, with 540 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Banpu surged 5.17 percent, while Bangkok Dusit Medical tumbled 1.87 percent, Bangkok Expressway lost 0.60 percent, B. Grimm improved 0.78 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods increased 0.42 percent, Energy Absolute strengthened 1.44 percent, Gulf advanced 1.04 percent, IRPC gathered 1.18 percent, Kasikornbank climbed 1.32 percent, Krung Thai Bank soared 3.40 percent, Krung Thai Card added 0.44 percent, PTT Oil & Retail rose 0.41 percent, PTT perked 2.05 percent, PTT Global Chemical accelerated 5.84 percent, Siam Commercial Bank retreated 1.32 percent, Siam Concrete rallied 4.00 percent and TTB Bank, Bangkok Bank, PTT Exploration and Production and CP All Public were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly positive as the major averages opened modestly higher on Thursday but accelerated throughout the day, finishing near session highs.

The Dow surged 614.46 points or 1.85 percent to finish at 33,916.39, while the NASDAQ soared 382.59 points or 3.06 percent to close at 12,871.53 and the S&P 500 spiked 103.54 points or 2.47 percent to end at 4,287.50.

The rally on Wall Street came as upbeat earnings news overshadowed a disappointing report on the U.S. economy; results from companies like Meta (FB), Qualcomm (QCOM), McDonald’s (MCD), Merck (MRK), and Eli Lilly (LLY) led the way.

Meanwhile, traders seemed to shrug off a report from the Commerce Department showing U.S. economic activity unexpectedly contracted in the first quarter of 2022.

Some traders may have interpreted the data as a sign the Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates as aggressively as currently expected.

Crude oil prices climbed higher Thursday amid concerns over supply due to the possible impact of sanctions on Russia’s crude oil production. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended higher by $3.34 or 3.3 percent at $105.36 a barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand will provide March numbers for current account and its coincident index later today, plus February figures for retail sales. In February, the current account deficit was $0.7 billion and the coincident index had a score of 129.1. Retail sales jumped 12.7 percent on year in January.