Renewed Consolidation Expected For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Friday halted the seven-day losing streak in which it had plummeted more than 85 points or 6.3 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,280-point plateau although it may hand back some of those gains on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on inflation and tariff concerns. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

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

For the day, the index rallied 20.02 points or 1.59 percent to finish at the daily high of 1,282.09 after trading as low as 1,252.26. Volume was 10.011 billion shares worth 57.651 billion baht. There were 338 gainers and 178 decliners, with 156 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info rallied 1.82 percent, while Thailand Airport was up 0.45 percent, Asset World improved 1.37 percent, Banpu and Krung Thai Bank both strengthened 1.28 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.33 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical perked 2.67 percent, Bangkok Expressway moved up 3.05 percent, B. Grimm climbed 2.36 percent, CP All Public skyrocketed 5.26 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods soared 5.56 percent, Energy Absolute advanced 3.03 percent, Gulf surged 3.10 percent, Kasikornbank shed 0.62 percent, Krung Thai Card added 0.49 percent, PTT Oil & Retail expanded 3.67 percent, PTT gained 1.65 percent, PTT Exploration and Production rose 0.80 percent, PTT Global Chemical spiked 3.06 percent, SCG Packaging accelerated 4.67 percent, Siam Commercial Bank skidded 1.18 percent, Siam Concrete jumped 2.05 percent, Thai Oil gathered 2.08 percent, True Corporation increased 2.54 percent, TTB Bank lost 0.51 percent and BTS Group was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened higher on Friday but quickly slipped under water and finished the session with sizeable losses.

The Dow stumbled 444.20 points or 0.99 percent to finish at 44,303.40, while the NASDAQ slumped 268.60 points or 1.36 percent to close at 19,523.40 and the S&P 500 sank 57.58 points or 0.95 percent to end at 6,025.99. For the week, the S&P 500 dipped 0.2 percent, while the Dow and the NASDAQ both fell 0.5 percent.

The weakness that emerged early in the session came after the University of Michigan released a report showing consumer sentiment unexpectedly deteriorated in February amid a surge by year-ahead inflation expectations.

Stocks saw further downside after President Donald Trump said he will announce reciprocal tariffs on many countries this week, with the U.S. imposing tariffs on imports equal to the rates imposed on American exports.

Traders were also reacting to mixed U.S. jobs data, with a closely watched Labor Department report showing weaker than expected job growth in January but an unexpected decrease in the unemployment rate.

Oil prices climbed higher on Friday after the U.S. imposed new sanctions on Iran's crude exports, although a stronger dollar limited oil's gains. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March rose $0.39 or 0.5 percent at $71.00 a barrel. WTI crude futures shed 2 percent in the week.