Thai Shares May Take Further Damage On Monday

The Thai stock market has moved lower in back-to-back sessions, surrendering almost 10 points or 0.8 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,440-point plateau and it’s expected to open under pressure again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were own and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

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

For the day, the index shed 7.49 points or 0.52 percent to finish at 1,442.63 after trading between 1,436.79 and 1,458.32. Volume was 14,383 billion shares worth 48.885 billion baht. There were 368 decliners and 138 gainers, with 150 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info gained 0.35 percent, while Thailand Airport jumped 1.28 percent, Asset World added 0.59 percent, Banpu tanked 2.61 percent, Bangkok Bank climbed 1.02 percent, Bangkok Expressway increased 0.65 percent, B. Grimm slumped 0.98 percent, BTS Group declined 1.22 percent, CP All Public retreated 1.16 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods dropped 0.81 percent, Energy Absolute sank 0.85 percent, Gulf plummeted 5.43 percent, Kasikornbank improved 1.03 percent, Krung Thai Bank collected 0.49 percent, PTT Oil & Retail improved 0.71 percent, PTT Exploration and Production spiked 2.49 percent, SCG Packaging surged 3.06 percent, Siam Commercial Bank rose 0.44 percent, Siam Concrete plunged 3.61 percent, Thai Oil tumbled 3.03 percent, True Corporation advanced 0.85 percent, TTB Bank rallied 1.16 percent and Krung Thai Card, PTT Global Chemical, PTT and Bangkok Dusit Medical were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly negative as the major averages opened lower on Friday and only weakened further as the day progressed.

The Dow plunged 305.87 points or 0.70 percent to finish at 43,444.99, while the NASDAQ plummeted 427.53 points or 2.24 percent to close at 18,680.12 and the S&P 500 dropped 78.55 points or 1.32 percent to end at 5,870.62. For the week, the NASDAQ shed 3.2 percent, the S&P sank 2.1 percent and the Dow fell 1.2 percent.

The sell-off on Wall Street came amid concerns about the outlook for interest rates following Federal Reserve Chair Powell’s recent remarks suggesting the central bank doesn’t need to hurry to lower rates. Citing the strength of the U.S. economy, Powell said the Fed can take a careful approach to future monetary policy decisions.

Potentially adding to concerns economic strength will lead the Fed to hold off on future rate cuts, the Commerce Department released a report showing retail sales increased by slightly more than expected in October.

Oil futures plummeted Friday on concerns about the outlook for demand, recent data showing an increase in U.S. crude inventories and a stronger dollar. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December sank $1.68 or 2.45 percent at $67.02 a barrel; they shed 5 percent in the week.

Closer to home, Thailand is scheduled to release Q3 data for gross domestic product later today; in the three months prior, GDP was up 0.8 percent on quarter and 2.3 percent on year.