The Thai stock market has moved lower in back-to-back trading days, sinking more than 7 points or 0.6 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just above the 1,200-point plateau although it's expected to stop the bleeding on Friday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild upside, with earnings optimism tempered by worsening coronavirus. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. markets were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The SET finished modestly lower on Thursday following mixed performances from the financial shares and energy producers.
For the day, the index dipped 6.30 points or 0.52 percent to finish at 1,201.64 after trading between 1,195.99 and 1,206.84. Volume was 20.326 billion shares worth 50.838 billion baht. There were 896 decliners and 538 gainers, with 461 stocks finishing unchanged.
Among the actives, Advanced Info gained 0.87 percent, while Thailand Airport plunged 3.30 percent, Asset World climbed 1.39 percent, Bangkok Bank jumped 1.82 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical and BTS Group both shed 0.56 percent, Kasikornbank rallied 2.00 percent, Krung Thai Bank spiked 1.74 percent, PTT skidded 1.59 percent, PTT Exploration and Production rose 0.64 percent, PTT Global Chemical lost 0.62 percent, Siam Commercial Bank collected 0.76 percent, Siam Concrete rose 0.29 percent, TMB Bank advanced 1.22 percent and Bangkok Expressway and Charoen Pokphand Foods were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is positive as bargain hunters fueled a significant rebound on Thursday, recovering for the major selloff a day earlier.
The Dow gained 139.16 points or 0.52 percent to finish at 26,659.11, while the NASDAQ soared 180.72 points or 1.64 percent to end at 11,185.59 and the S&P 500 jumped 39.08 points or 1.19 percent to close at 3,310.11.
The jump by the tech-heavy NASDAQ was led by Facebook (FB), with the social media spiking by 4.9 percent ahead of the release of its third quarter results. Tech giants Apple (AAPL), Alphabet (GOOGL) and Amazon (AMZN) also moved sharply higher ahead of their quarterly results.
The strength on Wall Street also followed a Commerce Department report showing a stronger than expected rebound by the U.S. economy in the third quarter. Adding to the positive sentiment, the Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell to their lowest level since before the coronavirus-induced lockdowns last week.
Crude oil prices fell sharply Thursday on concerns for the outlook of energy demand due to a renewed surge in coronavirus cases and tighter lockdown measures in several countries. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended down $1.22 or 3.3 percent at $36.17 a barrel, the lowest settlement in nearly five months.
Closer to home, Thailand will release September numbers for retail sales, current account and its coincident index later today. In August, sales sank 11.1 percent on year, while the current account surplus was $3 billion and the coincident index score was 125.21.
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