Thai Shares Expected To Remain Rangebound

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has finished higher in two of three trading days since the end of the three-day losing streak in which it had dropped more than 15 points or 1.2 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,250-point plateau although it's likely to hand back those gains on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on renewed pessimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The SET finished barely higher on Friday following gains from the food, finance, industrial and property sectors.

For the day, the index perked 0.56 points or 0.04 percent to finish at 1,254.10 after trading between 1,252.65 and 1,263.34. Volume was 8.304 billion shares worth 36.693 billion baht. There were 277 gainers and 158 decliners, with 214 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info tumbled 1.61 percent, while Thailand Airport crashed 4.76 percent, Asset World climbed 1.01 percent, Banpu plunged 3.25 percent, Bangkok Bank sank 0.61 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical surged 3.08 percent, Bangkok Expressway surrendered 0.93 percent, B. Grimm retreated 1.39 percent, BTS Group expanded 3.28 percent, CP All Public vaulted 1.73 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods shed 0.49 percent, Energy Absolute slumped 0.75 percent, Gulf contracted 1.22 percent, Kasikornbank fell 0.26 percent, Krung Thai Bank improved 0.88 percent, Krung Thai Card advanced 0.90 percent, PTT Oil & Retail rallied 2.31 percent, PTT Exploration and Production jumped 1.41 percent, PTT Global Chemical soared 2.55 percent, SCG Packaging spiked 2.60 percent, Siam Commercial Bank collected 0.75 percent, Siam Concrete accelerated 4.52 percent, Thai Oil declined 0.71 percent, TTB Bank lost 0.51 percent and True Corporation and PTT were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened mixed but quickly turned lower and spent the balance of the session underwater.

The Dow dropped 245.96 points or 0.51 percent to finish at 48,458.05, while the NASDAQ tumbled 398.69 points or 1.69 percent to close at 23,195.17 and the S&P 500 sank 73.59 points or 1.07 percent to end at 6,827.41.

For the week, the Dow jumped 1.1 percent, the S&P 500 slid 0.6 percent and the NASDAQ dove 1.6 percent.

The weakness on Wall Street was fueled by losses on the NASDAQ, which saw heavy selling among the technology stocks on renewed concerns over valuations.

Weak sentiment was also generated by comments from Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee, who explained his decision to vote against cutting interest rates at last week's Fed meeting saying that more inflation data should have been necessary.

Crude oil prices weakened on Friday as traders kept an eye on the latest developments in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and escalating tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery fell $0.20 or 0.4 percent at $57.40 per barrel.