Thai Stock Market Poised To Halt Losing Streak

The Thai stock market has finished lower in four straight sessions, slumping more than 40 points or 2.7 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just beneath the 1,560-point plateau although it may stop the bleeding on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild upside ahead of economic and earnings news coming the week. The European and U.S. markets were slightly higher on Friday and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The SET finished modestly lower on Friday as losses from the technology and service shares were mitigated by gains from the financial sector and a mixed picture from the resource stocks.

For the day, the index slipped 6.74 points or 0.43 percent to finish at 1,558.36 after trading between 1,549.64 and 1,572.43. Volume was 16.551 billion shares worth 41.503 billion baht. There were 962 decliners and 471 gainers, with 433 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info slumped 0.48 percent, while Banpu shed 0.53 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.63 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical dropped 0.85 percent, Bangkok Expressway gained 1.12 percent, B. Grimm retreated 1.30 percent, CP All Public sank 0.78 percent, Energy Absolute tumbled 2.41 percent, Gulf lost 0.49 percent, Kasikornbank jumped 1.98 percent, Krung Thai Bank soared 4,00 percent, Krung Thai Card advanced 0.93 percent, PTT Oil & Retail slid 0.45 percent, PTT improved 0.82 percent, PTT Exploration and Production rose 0.33 percent, PTT Global Chemical strengthened 1.83 percent, SCG Packaging tanked 2.87 percent, Siam Commercial Bank spiked 3.26 percent, Siam Concrete fell 0.33 percent, Thai Oil climbed 1.03 percent, TTB Bank surged 4.93 percent and Charoen Pokphand Foods, Asset World and Thailand Airport were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as the major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line on Friday before finally finishing barely higher.

The Dow added 22.36 points or 0.07 percent to finish at 33,808.96, while the NASDAQ perked 12.86 points or 0.11 percent to close at 12,072.46 and the S&P 500 rose 3.73 points or 0.09 percent to end at 4,133.52.

For the week, the S&P 500 eased 0.1 percent, the Dow slipped 0.2 percent and the NASDAQ dipped by 0.4 percent.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of several key economic reports and corporate earnings numbers due be released this week.

Crude oil prices climbed higher Friday, buoyed by fairly strong data on private sector activity in the U.K. and eurozone. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended higher by $0.50 or 0.7 percent at $77.87 a barrel. WTI lost 5.5 percent last week.