Thai Shares Likely To Remain Rangebound On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market ticked higher again on Friday, one day after ending the two-day winning streak in which it had picked up almost 20 points or 1.6 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,185-point plateau and it may see mild upside again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat thanks to ongoing tariff concerns. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were barely higher, and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

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

For the day, the index added 4.90 points or 0.41 percent to finish at 1,186.61 after trading between 1,180.49 and 1,190.62. Volume was 10.244 billion shares worth 47.327 billion baht. There were 302 decliners and 194 gainers, with 163 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info improved 0.75 percent, while Thailand Airport slumped 1.23 percent, Asset World sank 0.72 percent, Banpu jumped 1.82 percent, Bangkok Bank strengthened 1.34 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical stumbled 2.56 percent, Bangkok Expressway gained 0.91 percent, BTS Group plunged 3.54 percent, CP All Public skidded 0.99 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods rallied 2.12 percent, Energy Absolute tanked 3.31 percent, Kasikornbank spiked 2.18 percent, Krung Thai Bank accelerated 2.13 percent, Krung Thai Card shed 0.54 percent, PTT Oil & Retail dropped 0.93 percent, PTT surged 3.25 percent, PTT Exploration and Production advanced 2.69 percent, SCG Packaging plunged 3.21 percent, Siam Commercial Bank collected 0.40 percent, Siam Concrete retreated 1.21 percent, Thai Oil increased 2.86 percent, True Corporation soared 3.74 percent, TTB Bank climbed 1.04 percent and PTT Global Chemical, B. Grimm and Gulf were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street ends up slightly positive as the major averages spent almost all of Friday in the red before peeking into the green just before the close.

The Dow added 32.05 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 41,985.35, while the NASDAQ gained 92.45 points or 0.52 percent to close at 17,784.05 and the S&P 500 perked 4.67 points or 0.08 percent to end at 5,667.56.

For the week, the Dow jumped 1.2 percent, while the S&P and the NASDAQ both ended four-week losing streaks, rising by 0.5 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively.

The early weakness on Wall Street came amid ongoing concerns about the economic outlook along with rising geopolitical tensions and uncertainty about the impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs.

Crude oil prices bounced higher on Friday on geopolitical tensions after new U.S. sanctions against a Chinese refinery that purchased Iranian oil. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery climbed $0.23 or 0.3 percent to $68.30 a barrel.