Thai Stock Market Expected To Remain Rangebound

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last four trading days since the end of the two-day slide in which it had eased just over 3 points or 0.2 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,465-point plateau and it may see mild upside on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed as countries weigh the results of the U.S. elections. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SET finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the consumer, industrial, property, resource and technology sectors.

For the day, the index fell 5.03 points or 0.34 percent to finish at 1,464.69 after trading between 1,458.34 and 1,474.59. Volume was 18.905 billion shares worth 49.156 billion baht. There were 262 gainers and 215 decliners, with 186 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info sank 0.70 percent, while Thailand Airport lost 0.81 percent, Asset World skidded 1.09 percent, Banpu stumbled 2.52 percent, Bangkok Bank and Kasikornbank both collected 0.34 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical shed 0.93 percent, B. Grimm advanced 0.95 percent, BTS Group rallied 1.22 percent, CP All Public and PTT Exploration and Production both rose 0.39 percent, Energy Absolute plunged 2.86 percent, Gulf slumped 1.15 percent, Krung Thai Bank added 0.48 percent, PTT Oil & Retail plummeted 3.33 percent, PTT dropped 0.75 percent, PTT Global Chemical tanked 2.70 percent, Siam Concrete retreated 1.50 percent, Thai Oil gained 0.59 percent, True Corporation surrendered 2.44 percent, TTB Bank shed 0.56 percent and Charoen Pokphand Foods, Siam Commercial Bank, Krung Thai Card, SCG Packaging and Bangkok Expressway were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher on Friday and all finished with modest gains to fresh record closing highs.

The Dow jumped 259.65 points or 0.59 percent to finish at 43,988.99, while the NASDAQ rose 17.32 points or 0.09 percent to close at 19,286.78 and the S&P 500 added 22.44 points or 0.38 percent to end at 5,995.54.

For the week, the tech-heavy NASDAQ soared 5.7 percent, while the S&P 500 spiked 4.7 percent and the Dow rallied 4.6 percent.

Stocks continued to benefit from a positive reaction to former President Donald Trump's decisive victory in the U.S. presidential election, which is expected to be positive for corporations.

Traders also continued to digest the Federal Reserve's widely expected decision on Thursday to lower interest rates by a quarter-point. But Fed Chair Jerome Powell stressed that rates are not on any preset course and the central bank will make future decisions meeting by meeting.

Oil prices fell sharply Friday on concerns about the outlook for demand due to data showing a drop in China's oil imports, and disappointment over the size of China's fresh stimulus measures. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December sank $1.98 or 2.7 percent at $70.38 a barrel; the contract gained 1 percent in the week.