Thai Stock Market May Stop The Bleeding On Monday.

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved lower in back-to-back sessions, stumbling almost 35 points or 2.8 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,365-point plateau although it may find traction on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic on an improved outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets are predicted to follow the latter lead.

The SET finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the consumer, finance, industrial, property, resource, service and technology sectors.

For the day, the index lost 12.46 points or 0.90 percent to finish at 1,365.07 after trading between 1,361.34 and 1,379.91. Volume was 10.582 billion shares worth 60.167 billion baht. There were 382 decliners and 131 gainers, with 159 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Thailand Airport and Siam Commercial Bank both sank 0.85 percent, while Asset World lost 0.58 percent, Banpu slumped 0.87 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.34 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical improved 0.86 percent, Bangkok Expressway cratered 3.52 percent, B. Grimm stumbled 2.66 percent, BTS Group was down 3.45 percent, CP All Public weakened 1.83 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods rallied 2.26 percent, Energy Absolute climbed 1.02 percent, Gulf advanced 0.85 percent, Kasikornbank dropped 0.97 percent, Krung Thai Bank plunged 3.32 percent, Krung Thai Card retreated 1.57 percent, PTT surrendered 2.36 percent, PTT Exploration and Production declined 1.26 percent, PTT Global Chemical plummeted 3.83 percent, SCG Packaging tanked 2.58 percent, Siam Concrete tumbled 1.80 percent, Thai Oil crashed 22.14 percent, TTB Bank shed 0.55 percent and Advanced Info, True Corporation and PTT Oil & Retail were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened lower on Friday but quickly bounced up into the green and stayed that way for the balance of the session.

The Dow rallied 498.06 points or 1.18 percent to finish at 42,840.26, while the NASDAQ jumped 199.80 points or 1.03 percent to close at 19,572.60 and the S&P 500 gained 63.77 points or 1.09 percent to end at 5,930.85.

For the week, the Dow plunged 2.3 percent, the S&P 500 tumbled 2.0 percent and the NASDAQ slumped 1.8 percent.

The rally on Wall Street followed the release of the Commerce Department's report on personal consumption expenditures (PCE), which came in slower than expected.

As that is the Federal Reserve's preferred reading on consumer price inflation, the slower than expected growth inspired traders to pick up stocks at reduced levels following the mid-week sell-off.

Oil futures settled higher on Friday as the dollar came off two-year highs after soft PCE readings eased concerns about the outlook for interest rate cuts. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures perked $0.08 or about 0.1 percent to $69.46 a barrel. Oil futures shed 2.5 percent in the week.

Closer to home, Thailand is scheduled to provide November data for imports, exports and trade balance later today. In October, imports jumped 15.9 percent on year and exports climbed 14.6 percent for a trade deficit of $790 million.