Thai Stock Market May Add To Its Winnings On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has climbed higher in two straight sessions, improving more than 45 points or 2.9 percent in that span. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,620-point plateau and it's likely to open higher again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic, spurred by strong tech support and easing crude oil prices. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were slightly higher and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

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

For the day, the index added 13.25 points or 0.82 percent to finish at the daily high of 1,621.55 after trading as low as 1,612.12. Volume was 11.614 billion shares worth 77.145 billion baht. There were 354 gainers and 97 decliners, with 204 stocks finishing unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street suggests mild upside as the major averages shook off a slow start on Friday and trended slightly higher for the rest of the day, ending near session highs.

The Dow added 149.60 points or 0.29 percent to finish at 52,637.01. while the NASDAQ gained 74.72 points or 0.29 percent to close at 26,281.61 and the S&P 500 rose 31.75 points or 0.42 percent to end at 7,575.39.

For the week, the tech-heavy NASDAQ surged 1.7 percent, the S&P 500 jumped 1.2 percent and the Dow advanced 0.5 percent.

The upward move on Wall Street partly reflected strength among some big-name tech stocks, including Meta Platforms (META), Nvidia (NVDA) and the U.S.-listed debut shares of SK Hynix.

However, traders largely seemed reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the unofficial start of earnings season this week. Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C), Goldman Sachs (GS), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Wells Fargo (WFC), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), UnitedHealth (UNH) and Netflix (NFLX) are among the companies due to report their quarterly results.

Crude oil prices slumped on Friday, thanks to efforts by third-party mediators to bring the U.S. and Iran back to the negotiating table. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery was down $0.75 or 1.04 percent at $71.33 per barrel.