Losses May Accelerate For Thai Stock Market

The Thai stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last four trading days since the end of the two-day slide in which it had slumped almost 10 points or 0.6 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,540-point plateau and it may take further damage on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on renewed concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SET finished slightly lower on Friday as losses from the financial and services shares were mitigated by support from the food, energy and industrial companies.

For the day, the index dipped 3.11 points or 0.20 percent to finish at 1,542.03 after trading between 1,541.58 and 1,551.01. Volume was 10.366 billion shares worth 52.072 billion baht. There were 247 decliners and 204 gainers, with 188 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info gained 0.45 percent, while Thailand Airport dipped 0.35 percent, Asset World declined 1.46 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical tumbled 1.83 percent, Bangkok Expressway climbed 1.16 percent, B. Grimm improved 0.78 percent, CP All Public fell 0.39 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods dropped 0.91 percent, Energy Absolute lost 0.43 percent, Gulf added 0.54 percent, Kasikornbank fell 0.38 percent, Krung Thai Bank retreated 1.55 percent, Krung Thai Card collected 0.54 percent, PTT Oil & Retail increased 0.51 percent, PTT perked 0.72 percent, PTT Exploration and Production rose 0.30 percent, PTT Global Chemical rallied 1.42 percent, SCG Packaging soared 2.63 percent, Siam Commercial Bank shed 0.44 percent, Thai Oil gathered 0.51 percent, True Corporation jumped 1.38 percent, TTB Bank stumbled 1.16 percent and Bangkok Bank, Siam Concrete, Banpu and BTS Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened lower on Friday and worsened as the day progressed, ending near session lows.

The Dow tumbled 288.86 points or 0.83 percent to finish at 34,618.86, while the NASDAQ plunged 217.76 points or 1.56 percent to close at 13,708.33 and the S&P 500 sank 54.78 points or 1.22 percent to end at 4,450.32.

For the week, the Dow rose 0.1 percent, the NASDAQ fell 0.4 percent and the S&P dipped 0.2 percent.

The pullback on Wall Street reflected profit taking ahead of this week’s Federal Reserve meeting. The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged this week, but the latest batch of U.S. economic data reignited concerns about the possibility of future rate hikes.

The Labor Department said on Friday that import and export prices rose significantly more than expected, while the New York Fed noted a big jump in New York manufacturing activity this month – all of which bode ill for the outlook for interest rates.

Oil prices climbed higher on Friday, rising on optimism over the outlook for Chinese demand after reports showed Chinese refiners broke refining rate records in August. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended higher by $0.61 or 0.7 percent at $90.77 a barrel.