Win Streak May Continue For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market had tracked higher in four straight sessions, advancing more than 30 points or 2.2 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just shy of the 1,355-point plateau and it's expected to add to its winnings on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive on optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses figure to open in similar fashion.

The SET finished sharply higher on Friday following gains from the financial, industrial, property, resource and service sectors.

For the day, the index climbed 13.84 points or 1.03 percent to finish at 1,354.87 after trading between 1,340.59 and 1,355.52. Volume was 13.998 billion shares worth 62.577 billion baht. There were 369 gainers and 150 decliners, with 149 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info jumped 1.65 percent, while Thailand Airport perked 0.42 percent, Asset World improved 3.68 percent, Bangkok Bank soared 3.64 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical lost 0.90 percent, Bangkok Expressway plummeted 3.80 percent, B. Grimm increased 0.96 percent, CP All Public rose 1.69 percent, Energy Absolute exploded 26.89 percent, Gulf added 0.50 percent, Heng Leasing skyrocketed 10.17 percent, Kasikornbank accelerated 2.14 percent, Krung Thai Card climbed 1.20 percent, PTT Oil & Retail gathered 0.65 percent, PTT gained 0.73 percent, PTT Exploration and Production was up 1.42 percent, PTT Global Chemical surged 3.91 percent, SCG Packaging rallied 4.77 percent, Siam Commercial Bank spiked 2.83 percent, Siam Concrete advanced 0.96 percent, Thai Oil sank 0.95 percent, TTB Bank collected 1.68 percent and Charoen Pokphand Foods, True Corporation and Banpu were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened higher on Friday and spent the whole day in the green, ending near session highs.

The Dow jumped 462.28 points or 1.14 percent to finish at 41,175.08, while the NASDAQ rallied 258.39 points or 1.47 percent to end at 17,877.79 and the S&P 500 advanced 63.97 points or 1.15 percent to close at 5,634.61.

For the week, the Dow shot up 1.3 percent, the NASDAQ jumped 1.4 percent and the S&P 500 spiked 1.5 percent.

The rebound on Wall Street came as highly anticipated remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated the central bank is prepared to begin lowering interest rates at its next monetary policy meeting in September.

In other U.S. economic news, the Commerce Department noted a substantial increase by new home sales in the U.S. in July.

Following the rebound in the previous session, the price of crude oil showed another strong move to the upside on Friday. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery surged $1.82 or 2.5 percent to $74.83 a barrel after jumping $1.08 or 1.5 percent to $73.01 a barrel during Thursday's session. But the price of crude oil fell by 0.9 for the week due to sell-off earlier in the week.