Thai Shares May Run Out Of Steam On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Friday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had gathered more than 15 points or 1.1 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,385-point plateau and it may tick lower again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is one of caution ahead of the FOMC meeting later this week. The European markets were mixed and flat and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

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

For the day, the index sank 8.89 points or 0.64 percent to finish at the daily low of 1,386.04 after trading as high as 1,393.26. Volume was 17.108 billion shares worth 49.767 billion baht. There were 246 decliners and 233 gainers, with 185 stocks finishing unchanged,

Among the actives, Advanced Info slumped 1.44 percent, while Asset World added 0.51 percent, Banpu jumped 1.75 percent, Bangkok Bank retreated 1.43 percent, Bangkok Expressway rallied 1.20 percent, BTS Group was down 1.85 percent, CP All Public sank 1.75 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods tanked 2.65 percent, Energy Absolute tumbled 2.07 percent, Gulf gained 0.55 percent, Krung Thai Bank collected 0.63 percent, Krung Thai Card plunged 2.72 percent, Lanna Resources crashed 7.69 percent, PTT Oil & Retail lost 0.55 percent, PTT Exploration and Production rose 0.33 percent, PTT Global Chemical shed 0.62 percent, SCG Packaging declined 1.67 percent, Siam Commercial Bank dropped 0.87 percent, True Corporation surrendered 2.47 percent, TTB Bank stumbled 1.63 percent and Kasikornbank, Siam Concrete, B. Grimm, PTT, Thai Oil, Bangkok Dusit Medical and Thailand Airport were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Friday and remained under water throughout the trading day.

The Dow tumbled 190.89 points or 0.49 percent to finish at 38,714.77, while the NASDAQ dropped 155.36 points or 0.96 percent to close at 15,973.17 and the S&P 500 sank 33.39 points or 0.65 percent to end at 5,117.09. For the week, the NASDAQ fell 0.7 percent, the S&P eased 0.1 percent and the Dow was nearly flat.

The weakness on Wall Street reflected concerns about the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Fed's monetary policy meeting later this week.

While the Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders will look to the accompanying statement for clues about the outlook for rates. Recent hotter-than-expected inflation readings have reduced optimism that the Fed's first rate cut may come in June.

In economic news, the Labor Department said U.S. import prices increased in line with estimates in February, while export prices exceeded expectations. The Fed also noted a slight increase in U.S. industrial production in February.

Oil prices dropped on Friday, retreating from multi-month highs, due largely to profit taking after recent strong gains. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended down by $0.22 at $81.04 a barrel.