Thai Stock Market May Halt Losing Streak On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved lower in five straight sessions, slipping almost 20 points or 1.1 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,430-point plateau although it may stop the bleeding on Monday.

The global forecast for Asian markets is positive, with bargain hunting expected after some heavy selling last week. The European and U.S. markets were up on Friday and the Asian bourses are expected to follow suit.

The SET finished barely lower again on Friday as losses from the resource, service and technology sectors were offset by support from the property, industrial, financial and food stocks.

For the day, the index dipped 0.47 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 1,427.54 after trading between 1,422.88 and 1,433.03. Volume was 10.109 billion shares worth 40.200 billion baht. There were 303 gainers and 168 decliners, with 184 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info fell 0.35 percent, while Thailand Airport slumped 0.82 percent, Asset World lost 0.56 percent, Bangkok Bank jumped 1.70 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical tumbled 1.94 percent, Bangkok Expressway retreated 1.35 percent, B. Grimm accelerated 1.45 percent, BTS Group gained 0.91 percent, CP All Public and Siam Concrete both sank 0.81 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods improved 0.84 percent, Energy Absolute skyrocketed 17.59 percent, Gulf plunged 2.81 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.33 percent, Krung Thai Bank climbed 1.01 percent, Krung Thai Card strengthened 1.63 percent, PTT Oil & Retail surged 3.68 percent, PTT Global Chemical advanced 1.00 percent, Siam Commercial Bank added 0.44 percent, Thai Oil rallied 1.34 percent, True Corporation dropped 0.89 percent, TTB Bank shed 0.56 percent and SCG Packaging, Banpu, PTT and PTT Exploration and Production were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages returned from Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday by opening in the green on Friday and continuing to pick up steam as the shortened session progressed, ending near the day's highs.

The Dow jumped 188.59 points or 0.42 percent to finish at 44,910.65, while the NASDAQ rallied 157.69 points or 0.83 percent to close at 19,218.17 and the S&P 500 gained 33.64 points or 0.56 percent to end at 6,032.38.

For the holiday-interrupted week, the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 both jumped 1.1 percent, while the narrower Dow surged 1.4 percent.

The strength on Wall Street came as some traders looked to pick up stocks at relatively reduced levels following pullback seen on Wednesday.

Semiconductor stocks led the rebound, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index climbing by 1.5 percent after hitting its lowest intraday level in over two months in the previous session.

Crude oil futures settled lower on Friday after OPEC postponed its meeting to Dec. 5, despite expectations the group will delay production increases. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for January shed $0.72 or 1.1 percent at $68.00 a barrel. WTI crude futures lost 4.5 percent in the week.