Thai Shares Likely Stagnant On Monday

The Thai stock market headed south again on Friday, one day after snapping the four-day losing streak in which it had stumbled almost 25 points or 1.9 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,380-point plateau and it’s likely to remain in that neighborhood again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed, with strength from technology stocks offset by weakness from oil companies. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and the Asian bourses are likely on the same path.

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

For the day, the index shed 6.58 points or 0.47 percent to finish at 1,381.04 after trading between 1,379.43 and 1,389.79. Volume was 15.716 billion shares worth 39.326 billion baht. There were 302 decliners and 175 gainers, with 176 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info dropped 0.95 percent, while Thailand Airport surrendered 0.76 percent, Asset World rose 0.51 percent, Banpu plunged 2.63 percent, Bangkok Bank improved 0.72 percent, Bangkok Expressway plummeted 2.42 percent, CP All Public weakened 0.91 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods skidded 1.08 percent, Gulf lost 0.56 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.40 percent, Krung Thai Bank surged 4.35 percent, Krung Thai Card gained 0.55 percent, PTT fell 0.73 percent, PTT Exploration and Production retreated 1.62 percent, PTT Global Chemical shed 0.64 percent, SCG Packaging sank 0.85 percent, Siam Commercial Bank added 0.43 percent, Siam Concrete tanked 2.33 percent, Thai Oil slid 0.42 percent, True Corporation declined 1.24 percent, TTB Bank slumped 1.07 percent and B. Grimm, Energy Absolute, PTT Oil & Retail, Bangkok Dusit Medical and BTS Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened flat on Friday but quickly diverged, with the Dow and S&P 500 ending under water and the NASDAQ closing slightly in the green.

The Dow tumbled 305.50 points or 0.77 percent to finish at 39,475.90, while the NASDAQ added 27.02 points or 0.16 percent to close at 16,428.82 and the S&P 500 fell 7.35 points or 0.14 percent to end at 5,234.18. For the week, the NASDAQ spiked 2.9 percent, the S&P 500 surged 2.3 percent and the Dow jumped 2.0 percent.

Profit taking contributed to modest weakness in early trading, with some traders looking to cash in on the recent strength in the markets. Selling pressure was relatively subdued, however, as traders remained optimistic about the outlook for interest rates following the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy announcement last week.

While the timing of the first rate remains somewhat uncertain the chances of a quarter point rate cut in June have rebounded to 66.5 percent, according to CME Group’s FedWatch Tool.

Nvidia (NVDA) paced the tech-heavy NASDAQ, with the chipmaker surging by 3.1 percent. The AI darling, which has recently been a key driver of trading on Wall Street, ended the day at a record closing high.

Oil prices fell on Friday, as the dollar rose sharply with the Federal Reserve set to hold interest rates higher for now. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended lower by $0.44 at $80.63 a barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand is scheduled to see February figures for imports, exports and trade balance later today. In the previous month, imports were up 2.6 percent on year and exports jumped 10.0 percent for a trade deficit of $2.760 billion.