Thai Stock Market May Take Further Damage On Monday

The Thai stock market on Friday snapped the modest two-day winning streak in which it had added more than eight points or 0.5 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just above the 1,625-point plateau although the losses could accelerate on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on sinking crude oil prices and on the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The SET finished slightly lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares and the energy producers.

For the day, the index slipped 6.05 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 1,625.65 after trading between 1,617.31 and 1,635.04. Volume was 34.863 billion shares worth 105.671 billion baht. There were 1,254 decliners and 495 gainers, with 492 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info rose 0.26 percent, while Thailand Airport dropped 0.80 percent, Bangkok Bank shed 0.44 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical added 0.44 percent, Bangkok Expressway skidded 1.11 percent, Gulf lost 0.61 percent, IRPC retreated 1.47 percent, Kasikornbank declined 0.81 percent, KCE Electronics surged 5.10 percent, Krung Thai Bank sank 0.89 percent, Krung Thai Card tumbled 1.95 percent, PTT Oil & Retail advanced 0.87 percent, PTT surrendered 1.89 percent, PTT Global Chemical fell 0.41 percent, SCG Packaging rose 0.39 percent, Siam Commercial Bank tanked 1.44 percent, Siam Concrete gained 0.48 percent, TTB Bank plunged 2.78 percent and BTS Group, Charoen Pokphand Foods and PTT Exploration and Production were unchanged.

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

The Dow shed 166.44 points or 0.48 percent to finish at 34,584.88, while the NASDAQ sank 137.96 points or 0.91 percent to end at 15,043.97 and the S&P 500 fell 40.76 points or 0.91 percent to close at 4,432.99. For the week, the Dow eased 0.1 percent, the NASDAQ lost 0.5 percent and the S&P fell 0.6 percent.

The weakness on Wall Street came as traders looked ahead to next week’s highly anticipated monetary policy meeting from the Federal Reserve. The Fed is widely expected to leave monetary policy unchanged but could address the outlook for its asset purchase program.

The minutes of the Fed’s last meeting signaled the central bank might begin scaling back asset purchases by the end of the year. With recent disappointing economic data suggesting the Fed could delay, traders will pay close attention to the wording of the post-meeting statement.

Crude oil futures settled lower Friday on reports crude supply is being restored after hurricanes Ida and Nicholas had impacted production in the Gulf of Mexico. A firm dollar also led to the decline in crude oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October fell $0.64 or 0.9 percent at $71.97 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained more than 3 percent for the week.

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