Thai Bourse Poised To End Losing Streak

The Thai stock market has tracked lower in consecutive trading days, sinking almost 25 points or 1.6 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just above the 1,520-point plateau although it’s likely to find traction on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic, although weakness from the technology and oil stocks may limit the upside. The European and U.S. markets were mostly higher and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The SET finished slightly lower on Friday following weakness from the cement stocks and a mixed picture from the financials.

For the day, the index fell 5.94 points or 0.39 percent to finish at 1,521.72 after trading between 1,514.67 and 1,537.27. Volume was 32.043 billion shares worth 82.728 billion baht. There were 1,244 decliners and 439 gainers, with 447 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info added 0.28 percent, while Thailand Airport skidded 1,33 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.49 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical dropped 0.88 percent, Bangkok Expressway retreated 1.28 percent, BTS Group shed 0.59 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods spiked 2.86 percent, Gulf surged 5.67 percent, Krung Thai Bank tumbled 1.90 percent, Krung Thai Card plummeted 4.33 percent, PTT Oil & Retail declined 1.79 percent, SCG Packaging tanked 2.59 percent, Siam Commercial Bank rose 0.26 percent, Siam Concrete fell 0.48 percent and TTB Bank, Kasikornbank, PTT, PTT Exploration and Production and PTT Global Chemical were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is mixed as the Dow and S&P opened higher on Friday and finished at record closing highs – while the NASDAQ opened in the red and the finished under water.

The Dow added 144.26 points or 0.41 percent to finish at 35,208.51, while the NASDAQ lost 59.36 points or 0.40 percent to close at 14,835.76 and the S&P 500 rose 7.42 points or 0.17 percent to end at 4,436.52.

The mixed performance on Wall Street came as better than expected jobs data added to economic optimism but also raised concerns about the outlook for monetary policy. The Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment spiked by 943,000 jobs in July after surging by an upwardly revised 938,000 jobs in June.

Last week, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated further progress was needed in labor market recovery before the central would consider scaling back stimulus.

The price of crude oil moved lower again on Friday as concerns about the outlook for global demand amid a surge in coronavirus infections overshadowed upbeat U.S. jobs data. West Texas Intermediate crude oil for September delivery slid $0.81 or 1.2 percent to $68.28 a barrel, plunging 7.7 percent for the week.