Thai Bourse May Reclaim 1,400-Point Level

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved lower in back-to-back sessions, stumbling more than 20 points or 1.3 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just beneath the 1,390-point plateau although it's expected to stop the bleeding on Monday.

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

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

For the day, the index retreated 15.40 points or 1.10 percent to finish at 1,389.57 after trading between 1,387.41 and 1,406.08. Volume was 13.179 billion shares worth 50.981 billion baht. There were 345 decliners and 137 gainers, with 161 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Thailand Airport slumped 2.17 percent, while Asset World surged 3.41 percent, Banpu added 0.65 percent, Bangkok Expressway weakened 1.25 percent, B. Grimm tanked 2.07 percent, BTS Group was down 1.35 percent, CP All Public climbed 1.36 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods plunged 3.72 percent, Energy Absolute plummeted 4.32 percent, Krung Thai Bank skidded 1.05 percent, Krung Thai Card shed 0.54 percent, PTT Oil & Retail surrendered 2.67 percent, PTT dropped 0.75 percent, PTT Exploration and Production slid 0.31 percent, PTT Global Chemical lost 0.69 percent, SCG Packaging retreated 1.36 percent, Siam Commercial Bank eased 0.26 percent, Siam Concrete stumbled 1.36 percent, True Corporation sank 0.86 percent, TTB Bank declined 1.24 percent and Bangkok Bank, Kasikornbank, Advanced Info, Gulf, Thai Oil and Bangkok Dusit Medical were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly positive as the major averages opened higher on Friday and continued to advance as the day progressed, ending near session highs.

The Dow surged 391.20 points or 1.15 percent to finish at 34,283.10, while the NASDAQ rallied 276.71 points or 2.05 percent to end at 13,798.11 and the S&P 500 jumped 67.89 points or 1.56 percent to close at 4,415.24. For the week, the NASDAQ shot up 2.4 percent, the S&P 500 rose 1.3 percent and the Dow climbed 0.7 percent.

The rally on Wall Street came as traders shrugged off concerns about the outlook for interest rates sparked by remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday. Powell said the Fed is unsure rates are at a restrictive level to bring inflation down to 2 percent and warned the central bank would not hesitate to resume raising rates.

Despite Powell's comments, CME Group's FedWatch Tool currently still suggests the Fed is likely to leave interest rates over the next several months before cutting rates in mid-2024.

Stocks initially benefited from a pullback by treasury yields, which surged in afternoon trading on Thursday following a disappointing 30-year bond auction as well as Powell's comments. But the major averages continued to advance over the even though yields rebounded.

Crude oil prices rose sharply Friday, but the most active oil futures contract still suffered a third weekly loss as the disruption threats continued to fade. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended up $1.43 or 1.9 percent at $77.17 a barrel. WTI crude futures shed more than 4 percent in the week.