Thai Stock Market Has Flat Lead For Monday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Friday snapped the three-day slide in which it had tumbled almost 40 points or 2.5 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just above the 1,575-point plateau and it's likely to be rangebound on Monday.

There's not much of a global forecast, as most of the markets in Europe and the United States were closed on Friday for Good Friday. Key U.S. employment data was roughly in line with expectations, suggesting a steady if quiet session.

The SET finished modestly higher following gains from the financial shares and the technology companies.

For the day, the index added 5.04 points or 0.38 percent to finish at 1,577.07 after trading between 1,571.26 and 1,582.96. Volume was 11.505 billion shares worth 34.009 billion baht. There were 773 decliners and 545 gainers, with 527 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info added 0.48 percent, while Thailand Airport rose 0.35 percent, Asset World tumbled 1.75 percent, Banpu advanced 0.93 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical dropped 0.83 percent, Bangkok Expressway shed 0.56 percent, B. Grimm sank 0.63 percent, BTS Group soared 3.50 percent, CP All Public fell 0.41 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods tanked 2.34 percent, Energy Absolute gathered 0.67 percent, Kasikornbank increased 0.39 percent, Krung Thai Bank improved 1.22 percent, Krung Thai Card skyrocketed 5.74 percent, PTT Global Chemical gained 0.56 percent, SCG Packaging climbed 1.12 percent, Siam Commercial Bank collected 0.49 percent, Siam Concrete dropped 0.95 percent, True Corporation rallied 1.23 percent, TTB Bank strengthened 1.41 percent and Gulf, Bangkok Bank, PTT Oil & Retail, PTT, PTT Exploration and Production and Thai Oil were unchanged.

There is no lead from Wall Street as the stock and oil markets were closed for Good Friday. The big catalyst for the day, however, was the closely watched U.S. jobs report for March.

The Labor Department said that employment in the U.S. increased roughly in line with forecasts in March as non-farm payroll employment climbed by 236,000 jobs after jumping by an upwardly revised 326,000 jobs in February.

Economists had expected employment to rise by about 240,000 jobs compared to the addition of 311,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

Also, the unemployment rate edged down to 3.5 percent in March from 3.6 percent in February; the unemployment rate was expected to be unchanged.

The numbers fall in the butter zone, which is to say good enough to dispel fears of an economic slowdown but not so good as the encourage the Federal Reserve to feel comfortable applying another rate hike anytime soon.