The Thai stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, falling more than 15 points or 1.5 percent in the process. The Stock Exchange of Thailand finished just below the 1,020-point plateau, and now investors figure to scoop up bargains when the market opens on Friday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed with a touch of downside as the debt crisis continues to weigh. Gold stocks figure to fall on profit taking, while technology, steel and telecom stocks also may be soft - with support coming from properties and utilities. The European markets were mixed on Thursday and the U.S. bourses were mixed but little changed - and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The SET finished sharply lower on Thursday following heavy damage among the financial shares and energy producers.
For the day, the index plummeted 10.76 points or 1.04 percent to finish at 1,019.55 after trading between 1,017.36 and 1,024.60. Volume was 2.941 billion shares worth 19.740 billion baht. There were 298 decliners and 120 gainers, with 150 stocks finishing unchanged.
Among the decliners, energy giant PTT was down 0.60 percent, while PTT Chemical shed 1.04 percent, coal producer Banpu lost 0.83 percent, Kasikornbank dropped 0.87 percent and Bangkok Bank fell 0.66 percent.
The lead from Wall Street provides little clarity as stocks showed considerable volatility on Thursday, after seeing a substantial sell-off in the previous session. The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before closing mixed. While some traders looked to go bargain hunting following the recent weakness, concerns about the debt crisis in Greece continued to weigh.
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has struggled to win support for more austerity measures and is due to unveil his reshuffled cabinet on Friday. Traders were also digesting a mixed batch of U.S. economic data, including a report from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve providing further evidence of weakness in the U.S. manufacturing sector.
The Philly Fed said its index of activity in the manufacturing sector fell to a negative 7.7 in June from a positive 3.9 in May, with a negative reading indicating a contraction in activity. The decrease came as a surprise to economists, who had expected the index to increase to a positive 9.0.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department released a separate report showing a bigger than expected drop in first-time claims for unemployment benefits in the week ended June 11. Jobless claims fell by 16,000 to 414,000 from the previous week's revised estimate of 430,000. With the decrease, claims came in below economist estimates of 420,000, although they remain stubbornly above the 400,000 level.
A report from the Commerce Department also showed a modest increase in new residential construction in the month of May, with the increase in housing starts partly offsetting the sharp drop seen in the previous month. The report showed that housing starts rose by 3.5 percent to an annual rate of 560,000 in May from the revised April estimate of 541,000. Economists had expected housing starts to increase to 547,000 from the 523,000 originally reported for April.
The tech-heavy NASDAQ posted a modest loss on the day, falling by 7.76 points or 0.3 percent to a three-month closing low of 2,623.70. Meanwhile, the Dow rose 64.25 points or 0.5 percent to 11,961.52 and the S&P 500 edged up 2.22 points or 0.2 percent to 1,267.64.
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May 08, 2026 15:50 ET Manufacturing and services sector survey results and labor market data from main economies were the highlight on the economics news front this week. Factory orders and jobs report dominated the news flow in the U.S. Similarly, industrial production data from German garnered attention in Europe. In Asia, purchasing managers’ survey results from China and the central bank decision from Australia were in focus.