Thai Stock Market Has Flat Lead For Monday's Trade

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market bounced higher again on Friday, one session after ending the three-day winning streak in which it had more than 20 points or 1.3 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,530-point plateau although it may be stuck in neutral on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat ahead of this week's rate decision from the FOMC. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The SET finished modestly higher on Friday as gains from the food, energy, technology and packaging stocks were capped by weakness from the financial sector.

For the day, the index gained 8.07 points or 0.53 percent to finish at 1,529.25 after trading between 1,516.75 and 1,532.47. Volume was 12.878 billion hares worth 51.721 billion baht. There were 256 gainers and 170 decliners, with 208 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info improved 0.91 percent, while Thailand Airport accelerated 1.77 percent, Asset World retreated 1.35 percent, Banpu advanced 1.08 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.30 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical rose 0.88 percent, Bangkok Expressway picked up 0.57 percent, B. Grimm gathered 0.69 percent, CP All Public increased 1.20 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods strengthened 1.53 percent, Energy Absolute was up 0.89 percent, Gulf perked 0.52 percent, Kasikornbank plunged 3.37 percent, Krung Thai Bank shed 0.49 percent, Krung Thai Card added 0.55 percent, PTT soared 2.21 percent, PTT Exploration and Production jumped 1.61 percent, PTT Global Chemical sank 0.68 percent, SCG Packaging climbed 1.31 percent, Siam Commercial Bank lost 0.45 percent, Siam Concrete gained 0.63 percent, Thai Oil surged 2.69 percent, True Corporation rallied 1.45 percent, TTB Bank spiked 2.42 percent and PTT Oil & Retail was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened higher on Friday but faded as the day progressed, ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 2.49 points or 0.01 percent to finish at 35,227.69, while the NASDAQ lost 30.49 points or 0.22 percent to close at 14,032.81 and the S&P 500 rose 1.47 points or 0.03 percent to end at 4,536.34.

With the uptick, the Dow closed higher for the 10th straight session and surged 2.1 percent for the week. The S&P 500 also climbed 0.7 percent for the week, while the NASDAQ fell 0.6 percent.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the Federal Reserve's highly anticipated monetary policy meeting this week.

With the Fed widely expected to raise interest rates by another 25 basis point, traders are likely to pay close attention to the accompanying statement for clues about the outlook for rates.

Oil futures settled higher on Friday, lifted by data showing a drop in U.S. crude inventories and recent announcements by Saudi Arabia and Russia about crude output reductions. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September rose $1.42 or 1.9 percent at 77.07 a barrel. WTI Crude futures gained 2.3 percent in the week.