Thai Shares Tipped To Open Under Water On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market turned lower again on Friday, one day after snapping the two-day slide in which it had slipped almost 15 points or 1.2 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,235-point plateau and it's likely to open under pressure again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with oil and technology shares likely to lead the way lower. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The SET finished sharply lower on Friday following losses from the food, finance, industrial, property, resource, service and technology sectors.

For the day, the index dropped 13.48 points or 1.08 percent to finish at the daily low of 1,236.61 after peaking at 1,248.32. Volume was 10.933 billion shares worth 52.475 billion baht. There were 303 decliners and 162 gainers, with 185 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info tumbled 1.67 percent, while Thailand Airport crashed 2.04 percent, Asset World plunged 5.93 percent, Banpu retreated 1.24 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical fell 0.48 percent, Bangkok Expressway slipped 0.93 percent, B. Grimm cratered 2.31 percent, BTS Group was down 3.07 percent, CP All Public slumped 1.12 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods plummeted 8.37 percent, Energy Absolute declined 1.56 percent, Gulf surrendered 1.57 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.60 percent, Krung Thai Bank sank 0.81 percent, Krung Thai Card dropped 0.91 percent, PTT Oil & Retail rallied 2.31 percent, PTT contracted 1.59 percent, PTT Exploration and Production lost 1.32 percent, SCG Packaging skidded 1.16 percent, Siam Commercial Bank rose 0.39 percent, Siam Concrete added 0.47 percent, Thai Oil shed 1.54 percent, True Corporation stumbled 3.39 percent, TTB Bank shed 0.52 percent and Bangkok Bank and PTT Global Chemical were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened under water and stayed that way throughout the trading day.

The Dow dropped 92.02 points or 0.20 percent to finish at 45,544.88, while the NASDAQ tumbled 249.65 points or 1.15 percent to end at 21,455.55 and the S&P 500 sank 41.60 points or 0.64 percent to close at 6,420.26. For the week, the S&P 500 eased 0.1 percent and the Dow and NASDAQ both dipped 0.2 percent.

The weakness on Wall Street reflected profit taking, as some traders looked to cash in on the recent strength in the markets.

Meanwhile, traders seemingly shrugged off a typically closely watched Commerce Department report showing U.S. consumer prices increased in line with estimates in July.

While the data increased confidence the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates, a September rate cut may already have been priced into the markets. CME Group's FedWatch is currently indicating an 87.1 percent chance that the Fed will lower rates by a quarter point at its next monetary policy meeting.

Crude oil prices fell Friday on concerns on overproduction concerns as OPEC recently agreed to increase crude production by 547,000 barrels per day in September. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was down $0.60 or 0.93 percent at $64.00 per barrel.