Thai Stock Market May Extend Winning Streak

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved higher in three straight sessions, improving almost 25 points or 2 percent in that span. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just above the 1,310-point plateau and it's expected to open to the upside again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on an improved outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SET finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the food, finance, industrial, property, resource, service and technology sectors.

For the day, the index gained 10.95 points or 0.84 percent to finish at 1,311.99 after trading between 1,298.43 and 1,312.75. Volume was 11.774 billion shares worth 32.992 billion baht. There were 354 gainers and 97 decliners, with 199 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Thailand Airport sank 0.44 percent, while Asset World soared 2.25 percent, Banpu surged 4.00 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.37 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical picked up 0.94 percent, Bangkok Expressway rose 0.0.66 percent, B. Grimm increased 0.47 percent, CP All Public spiked 1.37 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods added 0.43 percent, Energy Absolute skyrocketed 12.30 percent, Kasikornbank improved 1.57 percent, Krung Thai Card retreated 1.28 percent, PTT Oil & Retail strengthened 1.26 percent, PTT perked 0.76 percent, PTT Exploration and Production gathered 0.33 percent, PTT Global Chemical rallied 1.65 percent, Siam Commercial Bank advanced 0.96 percent, Siam Concrete gained 0.44 percent, Thai Oil accelerated 1.36 percent, True Corporation slumped 1.12 percent, TTB Bank jumped 1.72 percent and Krung Thai Bank, SCG Packaging, Advanced Info, Gulf and BTS Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is solid as the major averages opened flat but generally moved higher throughout the trading day, ending near session highs.

The Dow added 67.87 points or 0.17 percent to finish at 39,375.87, while the NASDAQ rallied 164.46 points or 0.90 percent to close at a record 18,352.76 and the S&P 500 gained 30.17 points or 0.54 percent to end at 5,567.19 - also a record.

For the holiday-interrupted week, the NASDAQ spiked 3.5 percent, the S&P 500 surged 2.0 percent and the Dow advanced 0.7 percent.

The strength on Wall Street came as the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report for June generated optimism about the outlook for interest rates.

While employment jumped by more than expected in June, the report also showed downward revisions to job growth in April and May as well as another unexpected uptick by the unemployment rate.

Treasury yields moved lower after the release of the report amid optimism the continued increase by the jobless rate will convince the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates in the near future.

Oil futures slipped on Friday, but still posted their fourth straight weekly gain amid optimism about the outlook for demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended down by $0.72 or 0.86 percent at $83.16 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained about 2 percent in the week.