More Pain Predicted For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Friday wrote a finish to the three-day winning streak in which it had advanced almost 30 points or 2 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just beneath the 1,580-point plateau and it may extend its losses on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly negative after better than expected U.S. employment data raised grace concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were sharply lower and the Asian bourses are also tipped to open in similar fashion.

The SET finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the energy companies and a mixed picture from the financial sector.

For the day, the index lost 9.52 points or 0.60 percent to finish at 1,579.66 after trading between 1,572.52 and 1,592.12. Volume was 15.886 billion shares worth 50.536 billion baht. There were 1,211 decliners and 427 gainers, with 526 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Thailand Airport added 0.69 percent, while Asset World and Krung Thai Card both dropped 0.87 percent, Banpu plunged 3.15 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical advanced 0.85 percent, Bangkok Expressway skidded 1.13 percent, B. Grimm gained 0.80 percent, CP All Public sank 0.92 percent, Energy Absolute increased 0.57 percent, Gulf declined 1.01 percent, IRPC shed 0.63 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.35 percent, PTT Oil & Retail slumped 0.96 percent, PTT Global Chemical retreated 1.20 percent, SCG Packaging plummeted 3.23 percent, Siam Concrete weakened 0.93 percent, Thai Oil rose 0.48 percent, True Corporation climbed 1.22 percent and TTB Bank, Advanced Info, Bangkok Bank, BTS Group, Charoen Pokphand Foods, Krung Thai Bank, PTT, PTT Exploration and Production and Siam Commercial Bank were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is brutal as the major averages opened deep in the red and only worsened as the day progressed.

The Down plunged 630.11 points or 2.11 percent to finish at 29,296.79, while the NASDAQ sank 289.14 points or 3.80 percent to end at 10,652.40 and the S&P 500 slumped 104.86 points or 2.80 percent to close at 3,639.66. For the week, the Dow surged 2.0 percent, the S&P 500 jumped 1.5 percent and the NASDAQ climbed 0.7 percent.

The sell-off on Wall Street came following the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report, which failed to ease concerns about the outlook for interest rates by coming in stronger than economists had anticipated.

The unemployment rate matched its lowest level since just before Covid-19 lockdowns began to take effect in February 2020, which was also matched in July. Unemployment has not been lower in over 50 years.

Treasury yields advanced following the release of the report, with the yield on the benchmark ten-year note moving higher for the third straight session.

Crude oil prices rose sharply Friday, continuing to find support from the OPEC decision last week to cut output by 2 million barrels per day. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended higher by $4.19 or 4.7 percent at $92.64 a barrel, settling at a five-week high.