Thai Shares May Pick Up Steam On Thursday

The Thai stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last five trading days since the end of the two-day slide in which it had given up more than 20 points or 1.6 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,270-point plateau and it’s expected to open in the green again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat, with better-than-expected earnings news from AI darling Nvidia (NVDA) expected to fuel the markets. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SET finished slightly higher on Wednesday as gains from the consumer and technology stocks were offset by weakness from the food, resource and industrial sectors.

For the day, the index rose 2.13 points or 0.17 percent to finish at 1,272.17 after trading between 1,263.22 and 1,275.60. Volume was 6.254 billion shares worth 30.423 billion baht. There were 247 decliners and 202 gainers, with 207 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info slumped 0.95 percent, while Thailand Airport crashed 2.44 percent, Banpu contracted 0.91 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.64 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical improved 0.52 percent, Bangkok Expressway dipped 0.87 percent, B. Grimm added 0.66 percent, BTS Group tanked 2.26 percent, CP All Public slid 0.57 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods dropped 0.93 percent, Energy Absolute sank 0.70 percent, Gulf and SCG Packaging both retreated 1.20 percent, Kasikornbank shed 0.54 percent, Krung Thai Bank tumbled 1.82 percent, PTT Oil & Retail lost 0.75 percent, PTT declined 0.82 percent, PTT Exploration and Production gained 0.47 percent, PTT Global Chemical climbed 1.02 percent, Siam Commercial Bank improved 0.78 percent, Siam Concrete stumbled 1.88 percent, Thai Oil rallied 2.05 percent, TTB Bank spiked 2.72 percent and Krung Thai Card, Asset World and True Corporation were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday and hugged the line for most of the day before ending with modest gains.

The Dow added 47.03 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 46,138.77, while the NASDAQ jumped 131.38 points or 0.59 percent to end at 22,564.23 and the S&P 500 gained 24.84 points or 0.38 percent to close at 6,642.16.

The early strength on Wall Street came as traders looked to pick up stocks at reduced levels following the significant weakness of the past few sessions. The major averages slumped to their lowest closing levels in a month on Tuesday on lingering concerns about a potential AI bubble.

Buying interest waned over the course of the session, however, as traders looked ahead to the release of earnings news Nvidia after the close of Wednesday’s trading.

Stocks continued to show a lack of direction after the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest monetary policy meeting revealed officials had mixed views about the outlook for interest rates.

Crude oil tumbled on Wednesday, with various data points reinforcing oversupply concerns. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was down $1.22 or 2.01 percent at $59.52 per barrel.