Higher Open Anticipated For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Friday ended the five-day losing streak in which it had stumbled more than 25 points or 1.8 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just shy of the 1,415-point plateau and it may find additional support on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement and uncertainty thanks to the ongoing hostilities in the Middle East. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SET finished modestly higher on Friday as gains from the finance, service and technology sectors were capped by weakness from the property and resource companies.

For the day, the index gained 5.29 points or 0.38 percent to finish at 1,413.53 after trading between 1,407.77 and 1,416.33. Volume was 15.231 billion shares worth 40.264 billion baht. There were 282 gainers and 174 decliners, with 199 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info rose 0.46 percent, while Thailand Airport gathered 0.80 percent, Asset World increased 0.49 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.33 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical jumped 0.90 percent, Bangkok Expressway slumped 1.25 percent, B. Grimm sank 0.93 percent, CP All Public strengthened 1.38 percent, CP Axtra skyrocketed 7.14 percent, Energy Absolute was up 0.58 percent, Gulf rallied 1.12 percent, Kasikornbank soared 2.71 percent, Krung Thai Bank climbed 1.10 percent, Krung Thai Card gained 0.56 percent, PTT tumbled 2.14 percent, PTT Exploration and Production advanced 1.01 percent, PTT Global Chemical tanked 2.04 percent, SCG Packaging improved 0.74 percent, Thai Oil plummeted 2.36 percent, True Corporation dropped 0.97 percent, TTB Bank added 0.62 percent and Charoen Pokphand Foods, Siam Commercial Bank, Siam Concrete, Banpu, PTT Oil & Retail and BTS Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is of little help as the major averages opened slightly higher on Friday but then hugged both sides of the line for the rest of the session, ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow sank 118.04 points or 0.31 percent to finish at 37,592.98, while the NASDAQ rose 2.58 points or 0.02 percent to close at 14,972.76 and the S&P 500 perked 3.59 points or 0.08 percent to end at 4,783.83. For the week, the NASDAQ spiked 3.1 percent, the S&P added 1.8 percent and the Dow rose 0.3 percent.

The Dow was weighed by earnings news from the likes of UnitedHealth (UNH), Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM).

Traders were also reacting to a Labor Department report showing U.S. producer prices unexpectedly edged lower in December, adding to recent uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates.

Oil futures settled notably higher on Friday as an escalation in tensions in the Middle East raised concerns about delay in supplies. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February ended higher by $0.66 or 0.9 percent at $72.68 a barrel. For the week, the contract shed about 1.1 percent.