Thai Shares Tipped To Open To The Upside On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has finished higher in two of three trading days since the end of the four-day losing streak in which it had slumped more than 40 points or 3.5 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,250-point plateau and it's poised to extend its gains on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on an improved outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The SET finished modestly higher on Friday as gains from the resource, service and technology sectors were capped by weakness from the industrial and food stocks.

For the day, the index gained 8.60 points or 0.69 percent to finish at 1,253.39 after trading between 1,245.30 and 1,257.99. Volume was 8.209 billion shares worth 37.999 billion baht. There were 252 gainers and 190 decliners, with 201 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Thailand Airport sank 0.66 percent, while Banpu and Asset World both improved 0.83 percent, Bangkok Bank advanced 0.97 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical fell 0.47 percent, B. Grimm soared 4.31 percent, BTS Group was up 0.59 percent, CP All Public lost 0.55 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods shed 0.41 percent, Energy Absolute strengthened 1.54 percent, Gulf climbed 1.06 percent, PTT Oil & Retail increased 0.79 percent, PTT Global Chemical plunged 3.57 percent, SCG Packaging stumbled 2.15 percent, Siam Commercial Bank collected 0.78 percent, Siam Concrete retreated 1.76 percent, True Corporation surged 4.42 percent, TTB Bank shed 0.52 percent and Kasikornbank, Krung Thai Bank, Krung Thai Card, Advanced Info, PTT, PTT Exploration and Production, Thai Oil and Bangkok Expressway were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is solid as the major averages opened higher on Friday and continued to trend upward as the day continued, ending near session highs.

The Dow surged 846.24 points or 1.89 percent to finish at 45,631.74, while the NASDAQ rallied 396.23 points or 1.88 percent to end at 21,496.54 and the S&P 500 jumped 96.74 points or 1.52 percent to close at 6,466.91.

For the week, the Dow spiked 1.5 percent, the NASDAQ slipped 0.6 percent and the S&P rose 0.3 percent.

The rally on Wall Street came in reaction to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's highly anticipated speech before the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium.

While Powell touched only briefly on the outlook for monetary policy, his remarks have increased investor confidence that the Fed will lower interest rates next month.

Following Powell's remarks, CME Group's FedWatch Tool jumped to indicate an 83.1 percent chance the Fed will lower rates by a quarter point next month, up from 75.0 percent a day earlier.

Crude oil prices rose modestly on Friday as expectations of a Russia-Ukraine peace deal waned with no progress. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was up $0.13 pr 0.20 percent at $63.65 per barrel.