The Thai stock market headed right back up into positive territory again on Thursday, one session after it had ended the two-day winning streak in which it had risen just 5 points or 0.5 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand finished just below the 1,070-point plateau, and now investors are expected to lock in gains when the market opens on Friday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild selling pressure following weak economic data from the U.S. General profit-taking also may be in order following several days of gain. Technology stocks are likely to fall under pressure, along with financial and natural gas stocks. The European markets finished firmly higher and the U.S. bourses ended in the red - and the Asian markets are expected to follow the latter lead.
The SET finished sharply higher on Thursday following gains from the financial shares and energy producers.
For the day, the index spiked 12.53 points or 1.19 percent to finish at 1,068.54 after trading between 1,061.11 and 1,068.99. Volume was 3.304 billion shares worth 25.110 billion baht. There were 329 gainers and 111 decliners, with 155 stocks finishing unchanged.
Among the gainers, energy giant PTT was up 1.84 percent, while PTT Global Chemicals jumped 2.02 percent, Siam Concrete climbed 1.85 percent, Bangkok Bank added 0.33 percent and Kasikornbank collected 1.20 percent.
The lead from Wall Street calls for consolidation as disappointing housing data offset early buying interest, sending stocks lower on Thursday. Profit taking following recent strength also contributed to the downturn by the markets.
An upbeat report from the Commerce Department contributed to the early buying interest, showing a bigger than expected increase in durable goods orders in December.
However, the Labor Department reported that jobless claims rose to 377,000 in the week ended January 21 from the previous week's revised figure of 356,000, while economists had expected jobless claims to increase to 370,000.
In addition, the Commerce Department reported that new home sales fell 2.2 percent to an annual rate of 307,000 in December from the revised November rate of 314,000. The drop surprised economists, who had expected new home sales to increase to an annual rate of 320,000.
Among individual stocks, shares of AT&T (T) fell by 2.5 percent after the telecom giant reported slightly weaker than expected fourth quarter adjusted earnings despite seeing stronger than expected revenue growth.
Meanwhile, Caterpillar (CAT) rose by 2.1 percent after the construction equipment manufacturer reported stronger than expected fourth quarter earnings growth. Diversified manufacturer 3M (MMM) also ended the day higher after reporting better than expected fourth quarter results.
The major averages climbed off their worst levels of the day going into the close but still ended the session in the red. The Dow edged down 22.33 points or 0.2 percent to 12,734.63, while the NASDAQ fell 13.03 points or 0.5 percent to 2,805.28 and the S&P 500 slid 7.60 points or 0.6 percent to 1,318.45.
In economic news, Thailand will on Friday provide December figures for manufacturing production, with analysts expecting a decline of 30.0 percent on year following the 48.59 percent annual contraction in November.
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