Higher Open Anticipated For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved lower in three straight sessions, dipping more than a dozen points or 0.8 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,450-point plateau although it's due for support on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement amidst a lack of catalysts. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

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

For the day, the index fell 4.88 points or 0.34 percent to finish at 1,450.15 after trading between 1,446.60 and 1,460.55. Volume was 12.782 billion shares worth 60.645 billion baht. There were 234 decliners and 221 gainers, with 212 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info retreated 1.52 percent, while Thailand Airport gained 0.79 percent, Banpu improved 0.72 percent, Bangkok Bank tanked 2.60 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical was down 0.82 percent, B. Grimm lost 0.84 percent, CP All Public rose 0.38 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods stumbled 1.65 percent, Energy Absolute skyrocketed 10.12 percent, Gulf fell 0.44 percent, Kasikornbank plunged 2.92 percent, Krung Thai Bank shed 0.48 percent, Krung Thai Card skidded 1.04 percent, PTT Oil & Retail declined 1.14 percent, PTT added 0.75 percent, PTT Exploration and Production plummeted 4.00 percent, PTT Global Chemical sank 0.81 percent, SCG Packaging surrendered 2.48 percent, Siam Commercial Bank dropped 0.90 percent, Thai Oil slid 0.49 percent, True Corporation slumped 0.89 percent and TTB Bank, Asset World, Bangkok Expressway and BTS Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened slightly higher on Friday but wound up mixed and little changed.

The Dow climbed 137.89 points or 0.33 percent to finish at a record 42,313,00, while the NASDAQ slumped 70.70 points or 0.39 percent to close at 18,119.59 and the S&P 500 dipped 7.20 points or 0.13 percent to end at 5,738.17. For the week, the NASDAQ climbed 1.0 percent and the Dow and S&P both rose 0.6 percent.

The mixed performance on Wall Street came following the release of closely watched readings on U.S. consumer price inflation in August.

The Commerce Department said its personal consumption expenditures price index inched up by 0.1 percent in August after rising 0.2 percent in July. The uptick matched expectations.

Oil futures closed higher on Friday as additional stimulus measures from the Chinese government eased concerns about the outlook for demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November added $0.51 or at $68.18 a barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand will provide August figures for imports, exports, trade balance and current account later today. In July, imports were up 15.8 percent on year and exports rose 15.3 percent for a trade surplus of $0.90 billion. The current account saw a $0.300 billion in the previous month.