Thai Stock Market May Add To Its Winnings On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Friday wrote a finish to the two-day slide in which it had stumbled almost 30 points or 2.4 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,175-point plateau and it figures to open in the green again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on bargain hunting, especially among the oil and technology companies. The European and U.S. markets were firmly higher and the Asian markets figure to follow that lead.

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

For the day, the index advanced 14.12 points or 1.22 percent to finish at 1,173.76 after trading between 1,160.13 and 1,176.92. Volume was 8.310 billion shares worth 38.624 billion baht. There were 328 gainers and 145 decliners, with 181 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info sank 0.74 percent, while Thailand Airport perked 1.91 percent, Asset World lost 0.69 percent, Banpu accelerated 3.30 percent, Bangkok Bank shed 0.68 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical gathered 1.69 percent, Bangkok Expressway expanded 1.83 percent, B. Grimm strengthened 3.45 percent, BTS Group was up 0.91 percent, CP All Public rose 1.52 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods advanced 0.84 percent, Energy Absolute improved 5.79 percent, Gulf skidded 1.06 percent, Kasikornbank fell 0.33 percent, Krung Thai Bank spiked 2.16 percent, PTT Oil & Retail climbed 0.96 percent, PTT increased 6.42 percent, PTT Exploration and Production gained 1.38 percent, PTT Global Chemical skyrocketed 8.57 percent, SCG Packaging surged 9.40 percent, Siam Commercial Bank dropped 0.80 percent, Siam Concrete rallied 11.04 percent, Thai Oil added 5.26 percent, True Corporation jumped 1.89 percent, TTB Bank collected 0.53 percent and Krung Thai Card was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly positive as the major averages opened sharply higher on Friday and continued to accelerate as the day progressed, ending near session highs.

The Dow surged 674.62 points or 1.65 percent to finish at 41,488.19, while the NASDAQ rallied 451.07 points or 2.61 percent to close at 17,754.09 and the S&P 500 jumped 117.42 points or 2.13 percent to end at 5,638.94.

For the week, the Dow plunged 3.1 percent, the NASDAQ tumbled 2.4 percent and the S&P 500 slumped 2.3 percent.

The rally on Wall Street saw traders pick up stocks at reduced levels after the steep drop on Thursday, which dragged the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 down to their lowest closing levels in six months - and also sending the S&P into correction territory.

In economic news, the University of Michigan noted a substantial deterioration in consumer sentiment and a surge by inflation expectations in the month of March.

Oil prices climbed higher on Friday as worries about excess supply in the market eased after the U.S. government announced fresh sanctions on Iranian oil and shipping. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April closed higher by $0.63 or 1 percent at $67.18 a barrel.