Thai Bourse May Hand Back Friday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Friday snapped the tw0-day slide in which it had dropped more than 15 points or 1.2 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,175-point plateau although it may head south again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on renewed trade and tariff concerns. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The SET finished slightly higher on Friday as gains from the food, finance, property and resource sectors were capped by weakness from the consumer, industrial and services stocks.

For the day, the index rose 2.99 points or 0.25 percent to finish at 1,176.36 after trading between 1,173.54 and 1,184.86. Volume was 8.131 billion shares worth 34.683 billion baht. There were 259 gainers and 206 decliners, with 190 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info slumped 1.35 percent, while Thailand Airport sank 0.73 percent, Asset World skyrocketed 6.95 percent, Banpu rose 0.43 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical declined 1.81 percent, Bangkok Expressway was up 0.87 percent, B. Grimm improved 0.99 percent, CP All Public stumbled 2.55 percent, Energy Absolute strengthened 1.38 percent, Gulf accelerated 2.13 percent, Krung Thai Bank jumped 1.79 percent, Krung Thai Card spiked 1.88 percent, PTT Oil & Retail surged 4.00 percent, PTT Exploration and Production gained 0.50 percent, PTT Global Chemical skidded 1.01 percent, SCG Packaging climbed 1.19 percent, Siam Commercial Bank collected 0.83 percent, Thai Oil and Siam Concrete both advanced 0.88 percent, True Corporation soared 3.25 percent, TTB Bank added 0.52 percent and Charoen Pokphand Foods, Bangkok Bank, Kasikornbank, PTT and BTS Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened lower on Friday and remained in the red throughout the trading day.

The Dow dropped 256.02 points or 0.61 percent to finish at 41,603.07, while the NASDAQ tumbled 188.53 points or 1.00 percent to close at 18,737.21 and the S&P 500 sank 39.19 points or 0.67 percent to end at 5,802.82.

For the week, the S&P 500 gave up 2.6 percent, while the NASDAQ and the Dow both plunged 2.5 percent.

The initial slump on Wall Street came after President Donald Trump threatened to impose 50 percent tariffs on imports from the European Union beginning June 1, sparking renewed trade concerns.

On the U.S. economic front, the Commerce Department said new home sales in the U.S. spiked in April compared to a significantly downwardly revised level in March.

Crude oil prices ticked higher on Friday but still fell for the week amid reports of another production increase by OPEC for July. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery climbed $0.34 or 0.6 percent to $61.54 a barrel. For the week, crude fell 1.5 percent.

Closer to home, Thailand is scheduled to release April numbers for imports, exports and trade balance later today. In March, imports were up 10.2 percent and exports jumped 17.8 percent for a trade surplus of $0.970 billion.