Soft Start Anticipated For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved lower in back-to-back sessions, sinking almost 15 points or 0.9 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just above the 1,625-point plateau and it's expected to open under pressure again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on concerns for an economic slowdown and an increase in interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were sharply lower and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SET finished modesty lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares and a mixed performance from the energy producers.

For the day, the index lost 10.15 points or 0.62 percent to finish at 1,625.92 after trading between 1,623.69 and 1,638.75. Volume was 19.299 billion shares worth 70.952 billion baht.

Among the actives, Advanced Info tanked 2.00 percent, while Asset World advanced 0.92 percent, Bangkok Bank fell 0.36 percent, B. Grimm plummeted 4.49 percent, Energy Absolute rose 0.30 percent, Gulf skidded 1.01 percent, IRPC declined 1.14 percent, Krung Thai Bank shed 0.61 percent, Krung Thai Card lost 0.42 percent, PTT Oil & Retail tumbled 1.85 percent, PTT sank 0.67 percent, PTT Exploration and Production strengthened 1.61 percent, PTT Global Chemical retreated 1.58 percent, SCG Packaging dropped 0.85 percent, Siam Commercial Bank plunged 2.78 percent, Siam Concrete slid 0.55 percent, Thai Oil improved 0.88 percent, True Corporation gained 0.41 percent, TTB Bank slumped 0.82 percent and Thailand Airport, Banpu, Bangkok Dusit Medical, Bangkok Expressway, BTS Group, CP All Public, Charoen Pokphand Foods and Kasikornbank were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly negative as the major averages opened sharply lower on Friday and remained deep in the red throughout the session.

The Dow tumbled 292.26 points or 0.86 percent to finish at 33.706.74, while the NASDAQ plummeted 260.08 points or 2.01 percent to close at 12,705.21 and the S&P 500 slumped 55.26 points or 1.29 percent to end at 4,228.48. For the week, the NASDAQ dove 2.6 percent, the S&P sank 1.2 percent and the Dow dipped 0.2 percent.

The weakness on Wall Street came as traders looked to cash in on recent strength in the markets, which lifted the major averages well off their June lows to their best levels in almost four months.

Traders may also have been moving money out of stocks ahead of this week's economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Remarks by Federal Reserve officials at the annual symposium are likely to be in focus, as traders look for additional clues about the pace of future interest rate hikes.

Oil futures settled modestly higher on Friday but posted a weekly loss due to concerns about the outlook for energy demand amid fears of a possible recession in Europe. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September rose $0.27 or 0.3 percent at $90.77 a barrel.