Thai Shares Tipped To Open To The Upside

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved lower in consecutive trading days, slumping more than 6 points or 0.5 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just shy of the 1,310-point plateau although it's expected to open in the green on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic, with earnings optimism tempered by interest rate pessimism. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SET finished modestly lower on Friday as losses from the food, industrial, resource and technology sectors were mitigated by support from the financial shares.

For the day, the index shed 5.15 points or 0.39 percent to finish at 1,309.50 after trading between 1,304.11 and 1,318.33. Volume was 6.426 billion shares worth 32.552 billion baht. There were 222 gainers and 219 decliners, with 218 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info slumped 0.98 percent, while Asset World soared 2.80 percent, Banpu climbed 1.00 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical slid 0.53 percent, B. Grimm improved 1.25 percent, BTS Group stumbled 2.00 percent, CP All Public fell 0.54 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods retreated 1.40 percent, Energy Absolute gained 0.66 percent, Gulf shed 0.56 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.54 percent, Krung Thai Card dropped 0.87 percent, PTT sank 0.81 percent, PTT Exploration and Production declined 1.38 percent, SCG Packaging tanked 2.67 percent, Siam Commercial Bank added 0.38 percent, Siam Concrete plunged 3.77 percent, Thai Oil increased 0.70 percent and True Corporation, TTB Bank, Bangkok Bank, Krung Thai Bank, PTT Global Chemical, PTT Oil & Retail, Thailand Airport and Bangkok Expressway were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened higher on Friday, dipped midday but rebounded into the close to finish in the green.

The Dow added 40.75 points or 0.09 percent to finish at 47,562.87, while the NASDAQ climbed 143.81 points or 0.61 percent to end at 23,724.96 and the S&P 500 rose 17.86 points or 0.26 percent to close at 6,840.20. For the week, the NASDAQ surged 2.2 percent, the Dow added 0.8 percent and the S&P gained 0.7 percent.

The early strength on Wall Street reflected a positive reaction to earnings news from Amazon (AMZN), which reached a new record closing high after reporting better than expected third quarter results amid a sharp increase in revenue.

Uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates contributed to the volatility on Wall Street following Federal Reserve Jerome Powell's remarks earlier this week.

While the Fed lowered interest rates by another quarter point as widely expected on Wednesday, Powell's post-meeting remarks partly offset optimism about another rate cut in December.

Crude oil prices edged higher Friday following reports the U.S. intends to strike Venezuelan military installations. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was up $0.41 or 0.68 percent at $60.98 per barrel.