The Thai stock market on Thursday snapped the three-day slide in which it had given up more than a dozen points or 0.8 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just beneath the 1,325-point plateau although it\'s likely to see renewed consolidation on Friday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak, with continued selling pressure expected among technology and semiconductor stocks. The European and U.S. markets were mostly down and the Asian markets figure to follow suit.
The SET finished modestly higher on Thursday following gains from the food, finance, industrial, property, resource and service sectors, while the consumer and technology companies were soft.
For the day, the index added 4.97 points or 0.38 percent to finish at 1,324.76 after trading between 1,317.89 and 1,327.02. Volume was 10.300 billion shares worth 44.708 billion baht. There were 269 decliners and 223 gainers, with 165 stocks finishing unchanged.
Among the actives, Advanced Info accelerated 1.79 percent, while Thailand Airport was up 1.74 percent, Asset World climbed 1.03 percent, Banpu increased 0.97 percent, Bangkok Bank jumped 1.85 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical spiked 1.90 percent, Bangkok Expressway rose 1.29 percent, B. Grimm lost 0.45 percent, BTS Group surged 1.97 percent, CP All Public strengthened 0.88 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods shed 0.41 percent, Energy Absolute plummeted 17,19 percent, Gulf slid 0.56 percent, Kasikornbank improved 0.79 percent, Krung Thai Bank collected 0.58 percent, Krung Thai Card rallied 1.27 percent, PTT Oil & Retail added 0.62 percent, PTT Exploration and Production gained 1.37 percent, PTT Global Chemical and Siam Concrete both advanced 0.88 percent, Siam Commercial Bank dropped 0.98 percent, Thai Oil soared 2.90 percent, True Corporation gathered 1.11 percent and TTB Bank, SCG Packaging and PTT were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is poor as the major averages opened slightly higher on Thursday but quickly headed south and stayed deep in the red for the remainder of the session.
The Dow plunged 533.06 points or 1.29 percent to finish at 40,665.02, while the NASDAQ lost 125.70 points or 0.70 percent to end at 17,871.22 and the S&P 500 sank 43.68 points or 0.78 percent to close at 5,544.59.
The weakness on Wall Street partly reflected concerns about the near-term outlook for the markets following Wednesday\'s tech sell-off following reports that the Biden\'s administration is considering tougher trade rules against companies in its chip crackdown on China.
In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department released a report showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits climbed more than expected last week.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said that growth by regional manufacturing was more widespread in July. Also, the Conference Board noted a modest decrease by its reading on leading U.S. economic indicators in June.
Oil futures eased slightly on Thursday concerns about the outlook for oil demand from China, while the dollar\'s recovery weighed as well on prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended down $0.03 at $82.82 a barrel.