BANGKOK: The Thai stock market has moved lower in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day winning streak in which it had gathered more than 15 points or 1 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just beneath the 1,585-point plateau, although the market is expected to bounce higher again on Friday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive thanks to solid economic data and a rebound in the price of crude oil. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit. The SET finished modestly lower as losses from the energy producers were mitigated by support from the financial sector. For the day, the index slipped 6.04 points or 0.38 percent to finish at 1,583.25 after trading between 1,582.60 and 1,595.81. Volume was 9.952 billion shares worth 58.472 billion baht. There were 665 decliners and 545 gainers, with 403 stocks finishing unchanged.
Among the actives, Airports of Thailand plummeted 4.17 percent, while coal miner Banpu skidded 2.09 percent, Bangkok Bank climbed 1.12 percent, Kasikornbank jumped 1.53 percent, Krung Thai Bank spiked 2.63 percent, PTT plummeted 3.43 percent, PTT Exploration and Production lost 1.05 percent, PTT Global Chemical tumbled 2.85 percent and Siam Commercial Bank was unchanged. The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as stocks moved higher on Thursday after showing a lack of direction in the past few sessions.
The Dow added 118.06 points or 0.6 percent to 20,172.40, while the NASDAQ gained 32.73 points or 0.6 percent to 5,715.18 and the S&P rose 13.20 points or 0.6 percent to 2,307.87. Support followed comments from President Donald Trump, who pledged to lower the tax burden on American business in the next few weeks. He has previously proposed reducing the corporate income tax rate to 15 or 20 percent from the current rate of 35 percent. Positive sentiment was also generated by a Labor Department report showing a decrease in initial jobless claims in the week ended February 4th. Also, the Commerce Department said that wholesale inventories increased in line with estimates in December. Crude oil futures steadied Thursday after slipping to multi-week lows in the previous session. March oil was up 66 cents or 1.3 percent to settle at $53/bbl on Nymex.
