Thai Stock Market May Extend Friday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has finished lower in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day winning streak in which it had gathered almost 10 points or 0.7 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just above the 1,630-point plateau and the losses may accelerate on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on continuing recession fears. The European and U.S. markets were sharply lower on Friday and now the Asian markets are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The SET finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the energy producers and a mixed performance from the financial shares.

For the day, the index lost 13.58 points or 0.83 percent to finish at 1,631.71 after trading between 1,631.50 and 1,647.34. Volume was 15.918 billion shares worth 63.750 billion baht. There were 1,354 decliners and 414 gainers, with 426 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info shed 0.52 percent, while Thailand Airport climbed 1.03 percent, Asset World tanked 2.50 percent, Banpu retreated 1.47 percent, Bangkok Bank rallied 2.18 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical sank 0.85 percent, Bangkok Expressway added 0.53 percent, BTS Group lost 0.57 percent, CP All Public fell 0.44 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods stumbled 1.39 percent, Energy Absolute declined 1.38 percent, Gulf slumped 1.38 percent, Kasikornbank rose 0.33 percent, Krung Thai Bank slid 0.59 percent, Krung Thai Card plunged 2.89 percent, PTT Oil & Retail tumbled 1.87 percent, PTT dipped 0.67 percent, PTT Exploration and Production weakened 1.73 percent, PTT Global Chemical surrendered 1.70 percent, SCG Packaging dropped 0.91 percent, Siam Commercial Bank collected 0.46 percent, Siam Concrete skidded 1.50 percent, True Corporation was down 1.20 percent, TTB Bank gave away 0.78 percent and B. Grimm and IRPC were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street continues to be negative as the major averages opened sharply lower on Friday and stayed that way throughout the session.

The Dow plunged 486.29 points or 1.62 percent to finish at 29,590.41, while the NASDAQ tumbled 198.87 points or 1.80 percent to close at 10.867.93 and the S&P 500 sank 64.76 points or 1.72 percent to end at 3,693.23. For the week, the Dow dropped 4.0 percent, the NASDAQ plunged 5.1 percent and the S&P fell 4.7 percent.

Concerns about the outlook for the global economy continued to weigh on Wall Street after aggressive interest rate hikes by central banks around the world. Traders remain concerned the central banks' efforts to combat elevated inflation will push the global economy into a recession.

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by another 75 basis points earlier this week and signaled more significant rate hikes later this year.

While the Fed's projections pointed to an eventually tapering of rate hikes by next year, traders worry about the outlook for the global economy in the months ahead.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Friday, pushing the most active crude futures contract to their lowest close in about seven months. Weak outlook for energy demand due to a possible global recession outweighed concerns about tight supplies. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended lower by $4.75 or 5.7 percent at $78.74 a barrel, the lowest settlement since January.

Closer to home, Thailand will provide August figures for imports, exports and trade balance later today. Imports are expected to jump 17.9 percent on year, down from 23.9 percent in July. Exports are called higher by an annual 7.7 percent, up from 4.3 percent in the previous month. The trade deficit is pegged at $3.15 billion following the $3.66 billion shortfall a month earlier.