Thai Stock Market May Extend Friday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market headed south again on Friday, one day after halting the five-day losing streak in which it had slumped almost 50 points or 3.1 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,515-point plateau and it may take further damage on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is uncertain amidst debt ceiling negotiations in the United States. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The SET finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the food, industrial, energy, service and financial shares

For the day, the index shed 6.47 points or 0.77 percent to finish at 1,514.89 after trading between 1,512.66 and 1,530.47. Volume was 15.035 billion shares worth 47.321 billion baht.

Among the actives, Advanced Info was down 0.47 percent, while Thailand Airport slumped 1.75 percent, Asset World tumbled 1.90 percent, Bangkok Bank dropped 0.93 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical plunged 2.61 percent, Bangkok Expressway lost 0.60 percent, B. Grimm retreated 1.33 percent, BTS Group weakened 1.35 percent, CP All Public stumbled 1.20 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods shed 0.51 percent, Gulf skidded 1.04 percent, Kasikornbank dove 1.12 percent, Krung Thai Card spiked 2.27 percent, PTT Oil & Retail plummeted 5.88 percent, PTT sank 0.79 percent, PTT Exploration and Production fell 0.34 percent, PTT Global Chemical tanked 2.05 percent, SCG Packaging surrendered 2.31 percent, Siam Commercial Bank slid 0.48 percent, Thai Oil declined 1.65 percent, True Corporation crashed 4.51 percent, TTB Bank rallied 2.72 percent and Siam Concrete, Banpu, Energy Absolute and Krung Thai Bank were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is slightly soft as the major averages opened higher on Friday but slipped into the shortly thereafter and finished the same way.

The Dow dropped 109.27 points or 0.33 percent to finish at 33,426.63, while the NASDAQ sank 30.90 points or 0.24 percent to close at 12,657.90 and the S&P 500 fell 6.07 points or 0.14 percent to end at 4,191.98. For the week, the NASDAQ surged 3.0 percent, the S&P 500 jumped 1.7 percent and the Dow rose 0.4 percent.

The downturn on Wall Street came as Republican negotiators walked out of a meeting over raising the U.S. debt ceiling, offsetting recent optimism about an impending deal.

Selling pressure remained relatively subdued, however, as traders still expect lawmakers to eventually reach a debt ceiling deal.

Comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reinforcing expectations the central bank will leave interest rates unchanged next month also helped limit the downside.

Crude oil futures pared early gains and settled lower on Friday, weighed down by the ambiguity regarding the U.S. debt ceiling talks. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June slipped $0.31 or 0.4 percent to $71.55 a barrel; WTI crude futures gained 2.2 percent in the week.