Thai Shares May Tick Higher On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market headed south again on Friday, one session after snapping the two-day slide in which it had fallen more than 15 points or 1 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,520-point plateau and it's likely to remain in that neighborhood again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement, although bargain hunting would likely limit any downside. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets are expected to follow the latter lead.

The SET finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the industrial, technology, food, energy and financial shares.

For the day, the index shed 9.69 points or 0.63 percent to finish at 1,519.12 after trading between 1,516.18 and 1,527.75. Volume was 13.947 billion shares worth 56.890 billion baht. There were 280 decliners and 188 gainers, with 172 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info fell 0.45 percent, while Asset World lost 0.50 percent, Banpu plummeted 3.35 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical declined 0.88 percent, Bangkok Expressway dipped 0.56 percent, B. Grimm stumbled 1.38 percent, BTS Group weakened 0.70 percent, CP All Public sank 0.80 percent, Energy Absolute slid 0.43 percent, Gulf was down 0.52 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.78 percent, Krung Thai Bank retreated 1.52 percent, PTT Oil & Retail surrendered 1.95 percent, PTT Exploration and Production rose 0.32 percent, PTT Global Chemical tanked 2.01 percent, SCG Packaging tumbled 2.00 percent, Siam Commercial Bank shed 0.44 percent, Siam Concrete dropped 0.95 percent, Thai Oil gained 0.49 percent, True Corporation improved 0.74 percent, TTB Bank added 0.57 percent and Charoen Pokphand Foods, Bangkok Bank, Krung Thai Card, PTT and Thailand Airport were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened lower on Friday but recovered to finish mixed and little changed.

The Dow rose 25.96 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 34,500.66, while the NASDAQ shed 26.12 points or 0.20 percent to close at 13,290.78 and the S&P 500 eased 0.65 points or 0.01 percent to end at 4,369.71.

For the week, the Dow shed 2.2 percent, the S&P lost 2.1 percent and the NASDAQ sank 2.6 percent.

The lack of direction on Wall Street came as traders remained cautious amid concerns the Federal Reserve will hold interest rates higher for longer to control inflation.

The market had maintained a negative bias thanks to hawkish minutes from the Federal Reserve's most recent policy meeting and higher bond yields, but bargain hunting pared the losses.

Oil prices climbed higher Friday, extending gains from the previous session after data indicated a drop in output, while a weaker dollar contributed as well to the uptick in oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures added $0.86 or 1.1 percent to $81.25 a barrel. WTI Crude futures shed 2 percent for the week.

Closer to home, Thailand is scheduled to provide Q2 numbers for gross domestic product later today, with forecasts calling or an increase of 1.2 percent on quarter and 3.1 percent on year. That follows the 1.9 percent quarterly increase and the 2.7 percent annual gain in the three months prior.