Thai Bourse May Reclaim 1,200-Point Plateau

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last eight trading days since the end of the five-day winning streak in which it had advanced more than 50 points or 4.3 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,195-point plateau and it's expected to open to the upside again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on optimism over the outlooks for tariffs and trade. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

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

For the day, the index perked 1.28 points or 0.11 percent to finish at 1,195.77 after trading between 1,190.21 and 1,204.33. Volume was 9.018 billion shares worth 36.714 billion baht. There were 253 decliners and 229 gainers, with 177 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info plunged 2.36 percent, while Thailand Airport lost 0.71 percent, Asset World stumbled 1.94 percent, Banpu improved 0.86 percent, Bangkok Bank sank 0.70 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical shed 0.42 percent, Bangkok Expressway slid 0.84 percent, BTS Group added 0.43 percent, CP All Public slumped 1.45 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods advanced 0.96 percent, Energy Absolute skyrocketed 8.00 percent, Gulf strengthened 1.57 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.93 percent, Krung Thai Bank tumbled 1.80 percent, Krung Thai Card spiked 2.53 percent, PTT Oil & Retail plummeted 3.03 percent, PTT increased 0.81 percent, PTT Exploration and Production skidded 1.00 percent, SCG Packaging retreated 1.83 percent, Siam Commercial Bank rose 0.42 percent, Siam Concrete declined 1.49 percent, Thai Oil rallied 2.73 percent, True Corporation dropped 0.80 percent, TTB Bank climbed 1.05 percent and PTT Global Chemical and B. Grimm were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages shook off a soft start on Friday and continued to trend higher throughout the day, ending at session highs.

The Dow rallied 331.94 points or 0.78 percent to finish at 42,654.74, while the NASDAQ added 98.80 points or 0.52 percent to close at 19,211.10 and the S&P 500 gained 41.45 points or 0.70 percent to end at 5,958.38.

For the week, the NASDAQ surged 7.2 percent, the S&P spiked 5.3 percent and the Dow soared 3.4 percent.

News of the U.S.-China trade deal generated considerable buying interest that carried over for much of the week. While uncertainty remains about the U.S. and its trade partners reaching deals that permanently lower tariffs, traders have continued to express optimism.

Meanwhile, traders largely shrugged off data from the University of Michigan showing consumer sentiment in the U.S. has unexpectedly continued to deteriorate in the month of May.

Crude oil futures showed a strong move to the upside on Friday amid optimism about U.S. trade policies. West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery jumped $0.87 or 1.4 percent to $62.49 a barrel. For the week, the price of crude oil surged 2.4 percent.

Closer to home, Thailand is scheduled to release Q1 numbers for gross domestic product later today, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 0.6 percent on quarter and 2.9 percent on year. That follows the 0.4 percent quarterly increase and the 3.2 percent annual gain in the previous three months.