Thai Bourse Due For Support On Friday

The Thai stock market has finished lower in four straight sessions, slipping more than 30 points or 2.2 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,370-point plateau although it may stock the bleeding on Friday.

The global forecast is upbeat on encouraging inflation data from the United States. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets are expected to follow the latter lead.

The SET finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the food, consumption, finance, industrial, property, resource and service sectors.

For the day, the index sank 11.38 points or 0.82 percent to finish at 1,370.67 after trading between 1,366.93 and 1,381.37. Volume was 25.779 billion shares worth 73.556 billion baht. There were 382 decliners and 142 gainers, with 137 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info declined 1.47 percent, while Thailand Airport slid 0.39 percent, Asset World climbed 1.05 percent, Banpu and Thai Oil both tumbled 1.75 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.70 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical stumbled 1.72 percent, Bangkok Expressway dipped 0.62 percent, B. Grimm slumped 0.96 percent, BTS Group advanced 0.98 percent, Cal-Comp Electronics plummeted 10.29 percent, CP All Public weakened 0.86 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods shed 0.53 percent, Energy Absolute gained 0.71 percent, Gulf surrendered 1.71 percent, Krung Thai Card retreated 1.16 percent, PTT Oil & Retail tanked 2.16 percent, PTT crashed 3.52 percent, PTT Exploration and Production fell 0.33 percent, PTT Global Chemical added 0.66 percent, SCG Packaging plunged 3.45 percent, Siam Commercial Bank dropped 0.88 percent, Siam Concrete sank 0.74 percent, True Corporation lost 0.70 percent, TTB Bank skidded 1.08 percent and Kasikornbank and Krung Thai Bank were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher but quickly faded before later accelerating into the green to end near session highs.

The Dow added 47.37 points or 0.12 percent to finish at 38,996.39, while the NASDAQ jumped 144.18 points or 0.90 percent to end at 16,091.92 and the S&P 500 gained 26.51 points or 0.52 percent to close at 5,096.27.

The strength on Wall Street followed the release of a highly anticipated Commerce Department report showing consumer prices in the U.S. increased in line with estimates in January.

The inflation readings are said to be favored by the Federal Reserve, and the data generated some optimism about the outlook for interest rates.

In other U.S. economic news, the Labor Department noted a bigger than expected increase in weekly jobless claims, while the National Association of Realtors unexpectedly saw a sharp pullback by pending home sales in January.

Oil futures settled lower on Thursday as concerns about reduced fuel demand outweighing hopes for the likely extension of production cuts by OPEC. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April fell $0.28 or 0.4 percent at $78.26 a barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand will see figures for imports, exports and trade balance later today; in the previous month, imports were down 3.1 percent on year and exports rose 4.7 percent for a trade surplus of $970 million.

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