Thai Stock Market May Hand Back Friday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved higher in two of three trading days since the end of the three-day losing streak in which it had stumbled more than 90 points or 5.7 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just beneath the 1,565-point plateau although it's expected to see renewed consolidation on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests consolidation on continued concerns over the health of financial institutions. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The SET finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the financial shares and a mixed performance rom the resource stocks.

For the day, the index added 9.02 points or 0.58 percent to finish at 1,563.67 after trading between 1,555.24 and 1,571.60. Volume was 20.425 billion shares worth 73.539 billion baht. There were 897 gainers and 678 decliners, with 458 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info shed 0.48 percent, while Asset World improved 0.93 percent, Banpu spiked 2.94 percent, Bangkok Bank rallied 2.68 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical increased 0.88 percent, Bangkok Expressway plunged 5.06 percent, B. Grimm lost 0.64 percent. CP All Public improved 0.82 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods accelerated 2.36 percent, Energy Absolute tumbled 1.68 percent, Kasikornbank jumped 1.93 percent, Krung Thai Bank collected 2.44 percent, Krung Thai Card added 0.47 percent, PTT Oil & Retail climbed 1.01 percent, PTT advanced 0.84 percent, PTT Exploration and Production soared 3.31 percent, SCG Packaging plummeted 3.66 percent, Siam Commercial Bank strengthened 1.50 percent, Siam Concrete dropped 0.94 percent, Thai Oil rallied 2.56 percent, True Corporation gained 2.50 percent, TTB Bank surged 3.05 percent and PTT Global Chemical, Gulf, Thailand Airport and BTS Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Friday and pretty much stayed that way throughout the session.

The Dow tumbled 384.62 points or 1.19 percent to finish at 31,861.98, while the NASDAQ slumped 86.79 points or 0.74 percent to close at 11,630.51 and the S&P 500 dropped 43.64 points or 1.10 percent to end at 3,916.64. For the week, the NASDAQ soared 4.4 percent, the S&P 500 rose 1.4 percent and the Dow eased 0.2 percent.

The pullback on Wall Street came as traders looked to cash in on Thursday's rally amid lingering concerns about turmoil in the financial sector.

Traders also looked ahead to Wednesday's Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement. CME Group's FedWatch tool currently indicates a 43.2 percent chance the Fed will leave rates unchanged and a 56.8 percent chance of a 25 basis point rate hike.

In economic news, the Fed said U.S. industrial production was unexpectedly unchanged in February. Also, the University of Michigan said consumer sentiment in the U.S. fell for the first time in four months in March.

Crude oil prices sank Friday as rising concerns about the health of the banking sector continued to fuel worries about economic growth and the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April dropped $1.61 or 2.4 percent at $66.74 a barrel. WTI crude futures tumbled 13 percent in the week.