Foreign selling in Thai shares was seen slowing on Thursday amid optimism about the U.S. economic recovery. Foreign investors sold shares for around 200 million baht ($6.5 million) in the morning session compared with 600 million baht ($19.4 million) on Wednesday morning, traders said.

Fund flows continued into laggard sectors, led by petrochemical shares. Indorama Ventures Pcl, the country's biggest polyester producer, gained 3.7 percent and industrial conglomerate Siam Cement Pcl rose 2.7 percent.

Thai market sentiment was firmer, in line with most others in Southeast Asia, following Wednesday's U.S. Federal Open Market Committee statement about a pick-up in growth.

"The market had a sort of positive sentiment from the policy statement out of the FOMC ... There's a lot of rotational buys into laggard sectors and stocks whose valuations were relatively cheap," said Pichai Lertsupongkij, head of investment advisory services at broker Thanachart Securities in Bangkok.

Thai stocks, along with Indonesia and the Philippines, posted foreign outflows for a second session on Wednesday, led by Indonesia's $39.75 million in outflows, Thailand's $29.4 million in outflows and the Philippines' $4.4 million, Thomson Reuters data showed.

1604 (0904 GMT)

(Reporting by Viparat Jantraprap in Bangkok; viparat.jantraprapaweth@thomsonreuters.com; Editing by Chris Gallagher)