Thai Stock Market May End Losing Streak

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved lower in three straight sessions, slumping more than 25 points or 1.7 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just shy of the 1,400-point plateau, although it's likely to reclaim that mark on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic on positive momentum regarding the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

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

For the day, the index dropped 9.18 points or 0.65 percent to finish at 1,397.43 after trading between 1,305.83 and 1,410.83. Volume was 10.344 billion shares worth 32.807 billion baht. There were 353 decliners and 124 gainers, with 164 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info fell 0.46 percent, while Thailand Airport added 0.40 percent, Asset World plunged 2.67 percent, Banpu tumbled 1.91 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical stumbled 0.94 percent, Bangkok Expressway weakened 1.25 percent, B. Grimm plummeted 5.24 percent, BTS Group slid 0.69 percent, CP All Public slumped 0.90 percent, Energy Absolute tanked 3.16 percent, Gulf skidded 1.10 percent, Krung Thai Bank shed 0.55 percent, PTT gained 0.73 percent, PTT Exploration and Production sank 0.63 percent, PTT Global Chemical retreated 1.31 percent, Siam Commercial Bank rose 0.25 percent, Siam Concrete lost 0.68 percent, Thai Oil dropped 0.97 percent, True Corporation declined 1.67 percent, TTB Bank collected 0.65 percent and Charoen Pokphand Foods, Bangkok Bank, Kasikornbank, Krung Thai Card, SCG Packaging and PTT Oil & Retail were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street varies widely as the Dow opened higher on Friday and stayed that way, the NASDAQ opened lower and stayed that way and the S&P bounced back and forth across the line all day and finished barely higher.

The Dow gained 117.15 points or 0.33 percent to finish at 35,390.15, while the NASDAQ dipped 15.05 points or 0.11 percent to close at 14,250.85 and the S&P 500 perked 2.72 points or 0.06 percent to end at 4,559.34.

For the holiday-interrupted week, the Dow rose 1.3 percent, while the S&P 500 advanced 1.0 percent and the NASDAQ climbed 0.9 percent.

The choppy action on Wall Street came as many traders remained away from their desks following Thursday's holiday, with the markets closing three hours earlier than usual.

A lack of major U.S. economic data also kept some traders on the sidelines ahead of this week's reports on new home sales, consumer confidence, pending home sales and manufacturing activity.

Oil prices fell sharply Friday, with traders waiting on a crucial OPEC meeting this week as oil producers struggling to come to a consensus on production levels. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended lower by $1.56 or 2 percent at $75.54 a barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand will see October figures for imports, exports and trade balance starting today. Imports are expected to rise 6.0 percent after slipping 8.3 percent in September. Exports are called higher by 9.3 percent after adding 2.1 percent in the previous month. The trade surplus is pegged at $530 million after showing $2.10 trillion a month earlier.