Thai Stock Market Has Flat Lead For Monday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has finished higher in consecutive trading days, gathering more than 30 points or 2 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,390-point plateau and it's expected to see little movement on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed amid a lack of catalysts, with optimism over the outlook for interest rates preventing any heavy selling. The European and U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets are expected to follow suit.

The SET finished modestly higher on Friday as gains from the food, finance, industry and resource sectors were capped by weakness from the technology shares.

For the day, the index gained 12.09 points or 0.88 percent to finish at 1,391.03 after trading between 1,382.13 and 1,398.65. Volume was 12.382 billion share worth 61.155 billion baht. There were 328 gainers and 146 decliners, with 173 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info gained 0.92 percent, while Thailand Airport picked up 2.09 percent, Asset World soared 2.87 percent, Banpu advanced 1.56 percent, Bangkok Bank jumped 1.67 percent, Bangkok Expressway sank 0.62 percent, B. Grimm skyrocketed 4.67 percent, CP All Public was up 1.89 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods added 0.53 percent, Energy Absolute surged 4.60 percent, Gulf gathered 2.76 percent, Kasikornbank strengthened 1.56 percent, Krung Thai Card improved 1.65 percent, PTT Oil & Retail skidded 0.99 percent, PTT Exploration and Production perked 2.44 percent, PTT Global Chemical increased 1.29 percent, Siam Commercial Bank rallied 1.51 percent, Siam Concrete climbed 1.03 percent, Thai Oil rose 1.92 percent, True Corporation dropped 0.95 percent, TTB Bank spiked 1.94 percent and Krung Thai Bank, SCG Packaging, PTT, Bangkok Dusit Medical and BTS Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened mixed on Friday and finished the same way, little changed.

The Dow added 56.76 points or 0.15 percent to finish at 37,305.16, while the NASDAQ gained 52.32 points or 0.35 percent to close at 14,813.92 and the S&P 500 eased 0.36 points or 0.01 percent to end at 4,719.19.

The major averages all closed higher for the seventh consecutive week. The Dow and the NASDAQ both surged by 2.9 percent, while the S&P 500 jumped by 2.5 percent.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders took a breather following the recent upward move by the markets, although optimism about the outlook for interest rates continued to support the markets.

On the U.S. economic front, the Federal Reserve released a report showing a modest rebound in U.S. industrial production in November.

Oil futures posted their first weekly gain in two months despite settling on a slightly weak note on Friday. An upward revision in oil demand forecast by the International Energy Agency and a weak dollar pushed up crude oil prices over the past few sessions. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January eased $0.15 at $71.43 a barrel on Friday but added 0.2% for the week.