Lower Open Called For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market headed south again on Friday, one day after ending the two-day slide in which it had given up more than 20 points or 1.6 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,270-point plateau and it's expected to see continued consolidation on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

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

For the day, the index dropped 18.18 points or 1.41 percent to finish at 1,269.26 after trading between 1,263.62 and 1,286.71. Volume was 6.964 billion shares worth 32.021 billion baht. There were 355 decliners and 142 gainers, with 164 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info stumbled 2.52 percent, while Thailand Airport crashed 1.20 percent, Asset World cratered 3.81 percent, Banpu plunged 4.17 percent, Bangkok Bank shed 0.64 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical fell 0.51 percent, Bangkok Expressway lost 0.88 percent, B. Grimm surrendered 3.36 percent, BTS Group was down 0.76 percent, CP All Public shed 1.12 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods added 0.47 percent, Energy Absolute declined 1.40 percent, Gulf skidded 1.19 percent, Kasikornbank dipped 0.27 percent, Krung Thai Card dropped 0.92 percent, PTT Global Chemical retreated 1.47 percent, SCG Packaging plummeted 5.71 percent, Siam Commercial Bank sank 0.78 percent, Siam Concrete tumbled 1.84 percent, Thai Oil slumped 2.07 percent, True Corporation contracted 1.69 percent and TTB Bank, Krung Thai Bank, PTT Oil & Retail, PTT and PTT Exploration and Production were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened lower on Friday but hugged the line for most of the day before ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 309.74 points or 0.65 percent to finish t 47,147.48, while the NASDAQ rose 30.23 points or 0.13 percent to close at 22,900.59 and the S&P 500 dipped 3.38 points or 0.05 percent to end at 6,734.11. For the week, the NASDAQ dipped 0.5 percent, the Dow rose 0.3 percent and the S&P perked 0.1 percent.

Weakness among technology stocks continued to weigh on Wall Street early in the session amid lingering valuation concerns. However, gains from tech heavyweights Nvidia (NVDA), Palantir Technologies (PLTR) and Tesla (TSLA) dragged the NASDAQ into the green.

While some traders used the initial slump as an opportunity to pick up stocks at reduced levels, buying interest remained somewhat subdued amid uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates.

Recent comments from Federal Reserve officials and indications that key U.S. economic data may never be released due to the government shutdown have reduced confidence that the central bank will lower interest rates next month.

Crude oil prices rallied on Friday after a Ukrainian drone attack damaged an oil depot in the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was up $1.28 or 2.2 percent at $59.97 a barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand will see Q3 numbers for gross domestic product later today; in the previous quarter, GDP was up 0.6 percent on quarter and 2.8 percent on year.