Thai Stock Market May Take Further Damage On Monday

(RTTNews) - The stock market has tracked lower in back-to-back sessions, sinking more than 8 points or 0.5 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,560-point plateau and it's likely to open under pressure again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on concerns over recession and the debt ceiling. The European markets were up 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 energy, service, food and financial shares.

For the day, the index fell 6.05 points or 0.39 percent to finish at 1,561.35 after trading between 1,548.03 and 1,567.61. Volume was 16.073 billion shares worth 57.113 billion baht.

Among the actives, Advanced Info gained 0.91 percent, while Thailand Airport slipped 0.34 percent, Asset World sank 0.91 percent, Banpu tumbled 1.81 percent, Bangkok Bank shed 0.61 percent, Bangkok Expressway fell 0.55 percent, B. Grimm weakened 0.63 percent, BTS Group stumbled 1.28 percent, CP All Public and SCG Packaging both skidded 1.12 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods dropped 0.98 percent, Energy Absolute slumped 1.10 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.74 percent, Krung Thai Bank lost 0.53 percent, Krung Thai Card gained 0.45 percent, PTT Oil & Retail jumped 1.32 percent, PTT Exploration and Production surrendered 1.35 percent, PTT Global Chemical tanked 2.42 percent, Siam Commercial Bank retreated 1.40 percent, Siam Concrete added 0.60 percent, Thai Oil was down 0.53 percent, True Corporation slid 0.65 percent, TTB Bank declined 1.32 percent and Bangkok Dusit Medical, Gulf and PTT were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened higher on Friday but quickly turned lower, spending the rest of the session in the red and finishing with mild losses.

The Dow dipped 8.88 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 33,300.62, while the NASDAQ sank 43.76 points or 0.35 percent to end at 12,284.74 and the S&P 500 eased 6.54 points or 0.16 percent to close at 4,124.08.

For the week, the Dow slumped 1.1 percent, the S&P fell 0.3 percent and but the NASDAQ rose 0.4 percent.

The early downturn on Wall Street followed the release of a report from the University of Michigan showing U.S. consumer sentiment deteriorated much more than anticipated in May.

Worries about the debt ceiling crisis also continued to hang over the markets, with the postponement of a meeting between President Joe Biden and top lawmakers adding to jitters about a potential default.

Crude oil prices fell Friday on the dollar's strength and worries about the outlook for energy demand. Fears of the U.S. falling into a recession and the impasse in debt ceiling talks boosted dollar's safe-haven appeal and hurt oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures fell $0.83 or 1.2 percent at $70.04 a barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand will provide Q1 figures for gross domestic product later today, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 1.7 percent on quarter and 2.3 percent on year. That follows the 1.5 percent quarterly contraction and the 1.4 percent yearly gain in the three months prior.