Thai Bourse May Extend Thursday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Thursday snapped the two-day winning streak in which it had jumped more than 30 points or 2.2 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just above the 1,330-point plateau and it may tick lower again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky amidst profit taking and contrasting earnings news. The European and U.S. markets were mixed with a touch of weakness, and the Asian markets figure to follow suit.

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

For the day, the index shed 7.83 points or 0.58 percent to finish at 1,331.07 after trading between 1,326.83 and 1,342.19. Volume was 6.824 billion shares worth 51.753 billion baht. There were 268 decliners and 164 gainers, with 221 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info skidded 1.14 percent, while Thailand Airport slumped 0.96 percent, Banpu surrendered 2.70 percent, Bangkok Bank tumbled 1.89 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical added 0.50 percent, B. Grimm contracted 1.55 percent, BTS Group was down 0.89 percent, Energy Absolute improved 0.74 percent, Gulf shed 0.53 percent, Kasikornbank stumbled 2.09 percent, Krung Thai Bank retreated 1.72 percent, Krung Thai Card dropped 0.88 percent, PTT Oil & Retail plunged 3.60 percent, PTT Global Chemical tanked 2.88 percent, SCG Packaging declined 1.49 percent, Siam Commercial Bank sank 0.73 percent, Siam Concrete crashed 6.02 percent, Thai Oil gained 0.59 percent, True Corporation soared 4.46 percent and TTB Bank, Charoen Pokphand Foods, Asset World, PTT, PTT Exploration and Production, CP All Public and Bangkok Expressway were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Thursday and then mostly hugged the line before ending mixed.

The Dow rose 55.96 points or 0.11 percent to finish at 49,071.56, while the NASDAQ slumped 172.33 points or 0.72 percent to end at 23,685.12 and the S&P 500 dipped 9.02 points or 0.13 percent to close at 6,969.01.

The early sell-off on Wall Street came amid a steep drop by shares of Microsoft (MSFT) after the company reported slowing cloud computing growth in its fiscal second quarter and provided disappointing third quarter guidance.

Profit taking may also have contributed to the early weakness after the S&P 500 briefly peeked above the 7,000 level for the first time during Wednesday's session.

A strong performance by shares of Meta Platforms (META) may have limited the downside after the Facebook parent reported better than expected fourth quarter results and forecast first quarter revenues above estimates.

Crude oil prices spiked on Thursday as Iran shrugged off U.S. threats to negotiate or face attack, causing concerns over possible supply disruptions. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery was up $2.23 or 3.53 percent at $65.44 per barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand will release December figures for industrial production, current account, imports, exports and trade balance later today. Production is expected to slip 0.9 percent on year after dropping 4.24 percent in November.

In the previous month, the current account deficit was $600 million, while imports jumped 17.3 percent on year and exports rose an annual 5.5 percent for a trade deficit of $200 million.