Continued Consolidation Anticipated For Thai Stock Market

The Thai stock market has finished lower in two of three trading days since the end of the three-day winning streak in which it had advanced more than 30 points or 1.9 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,670-point plateau and it’s expected to open in the red again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is continued volatility with a downward bias thanks to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian markets are expected to open in similar fashion.

The SET finished sharply lower on Friday with damage across the board – especially among the financial shares and energy producers.

For the day, the index sank 24.36 points or 1.44 percent to finish at 1,671.72 after trading between 1,671.70 and 1,689.89. Volume was 29.754 billion shares worth 87.712 billion baht. There were 1m608 decliners and 354 gainers, with 371 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info tumbled 2.52 percent, while Thailand Airport dropped 1.16 percent, Banpu plummeted 6.40 percent, Bangkok Bank sank 1.10 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical shed 0.81 percent, Bangkok Expressway surrendered 2.22 percent, BTS Group and Siam Concrete both weakened 1.04 percent, CP All Public retreated 1.82 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods stumbled 2.21 percent, Energy Absolute skidded 1.10 percent, Gulf declined 1.49 percent, IRPC slumped 2.65 percent, Kasikornbank slid 0.62 percent, Krung Thai Bank lost 0.72 percent, PTT cratered 3.75 percent, PTT Global Chemical weakened 1.94 percent, SCG Packaging lost 1.76 percent, Siam Commercial Bank gave away 2.02 percent, True Corporation was down 1.39 percent, TTB Bank plummeted 2.21 percent and Asset World, PTT Oil & Retail and PTT Exploration and Production were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Friday and remained solidly in the red throughout the session.

The Dow dropped 179.90 points or 0.53 percent to finish at 33,614.80, while the NASDAQ tumbled 224.46 points or 1.66 percent to close at 13,313.44 and the S&P sank 34.62 points or 0.79 percent to end at 4,328.87. For the week, the NASDAQ plunged 2.8 percent and the Dow and S&P both fell 1.3 percent.

The weakness on Wall Street came as concerns about the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine continued to weigh on the markets, with Russia ratcheting up its attacks and taking control of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.

Worries about Ukraine overshadowed the Labor Department report that showed U.S. employment once again jumped by much more than expected in February.

Crude oil prices moved up sharply on Friday as worries about supply disruptions grew amid an escalation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended up by $8.01 or about 7.4 percent at $115.68 a barrel, the highest settlement since September 2008. WTI crude futures skyrocketed 26.3 percent for the week, the steepest climb in percentage terms since the week ending April 3, 2020.