Thai Stock Market May See Renewed Selling Pressure

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Friday snapped the four-day losing streak in which it had dropped almost 35 points or 2.5 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,460-point plateau although it may hand back those gains on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky amid concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and fairly flat and the Asian markets are expected to follow suit.

The SET finished slightly higher on Friday as gains from the finance, service and technology stocks were offset by weakness from the food, consumer and resource sectors.

For the day, the index rose 2.78 points or 0.19 percent to finish at 1,463.42 after trading between 1,456.59 and 1,468.79. Volume was 12.615 billion shares worth 41.356 billion baht. There were 240 decliners and 208 gainers, with 216 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info fell 0.36 percent, while Thailand Airport perked 0.41 percent, Asset World gained 0.55 percent, Banpu improved 0.81 percent, Bangkok Bank shed 0.67 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical advanced 0.88 percent, Bangkok Expressway rallied 1.27 percent, B. Grimm shed 0.44 percent, BTS Group soared 3.10 percent, CP All Public was up 0.39 percent, Gulf skidded 1.13 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.68 percent, Krung Thai Card added 0.52 percent, PTT Oil & Retail strengthened 1.28 percent, PTT sank 0.75 percent, PTT Exploration and Production increased 0.40 percent, PTT Global Chemical rose 0.42 percent, SCG Packaging dropped 0.96 percent, Siam Commercial Bank climbed 1.32 percent, Siam Concrete retreated 1.45 percent, Thai Oil plummeted 4.35 percent, True Corporation soared 2.54 percent and TTB Bank, Charoen Pokphand Foods, Krung Thai Bank and Energy Absolute were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street again offers little clarity as the major averages opened slightly higher on Friday but slumped as the day progressed to end mixed.

The Dow stumbled 259.96 points or 0.61 percent to finish at 42,114.40, while the NASDAQ added 103.12 points or 0.56 percent to close at 18,518.61 and the S&P 500 eased 1.74 points or 0.03 percent to end at 5,808.12.

For the week, the Dow tumbled 2.7 percent and the S&P 500 slumped 1.0 percent, but the NASDAQ rose 0.2 percent.

Stocks moved mostly higher early in the session amid ongoing optimism about the outlook for the economy after the University of Michigan said consumer sentiment unexpectedly improved in October.

Buying interest waned over the course of the session, however, as treasury yields rebounded following Thursday's pullback amid lingering concerns the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates slower than previously anticipated.

Oil prices rose sharply on Friday amid worries about geopolitical tensions and for potential output adjustments from OPEC. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December closed up $1.69 or 2.3 percent at $71.78 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained 3.8 percent in the week.

Closer to home, Thailand is scheduled to see September numbers for imports, exports and trade balance later today. In August, imports were up 8.9 percent on year and exports rose an annual 7.0 percent for a trade surplus of $0.260 billion.