Thai Stock Market Tipped To Open In The Red

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has moved lower in three straight sessions, sinking almost 35 points or 2.2 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just beneath the 1,635-point plateau and it's expected to open under pressure again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests consolidation on renewed concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian markets are expected to follow that lead.

The SET finished sharply lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares and the resource stocks.

For the day, the index dropped 18.45 points or 1.12 percent to finish at 1,634.02. Volume was 16.037 billion shares worth 41.659 billion baht. There were 1,213 decliners and 381 gainers, with 412 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info tanked 2.43 percent, while Asset World gave away 0.83 percent, Banpu sank 0.88 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical slumped 0.85 percent, Bangkok Expressway dove 1.09 percent, B. Grimm was down 0.64 percent, CP All Public plummeted 5.00 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods retreated 1.30 percent, Energy Absolute plunged 3.14 percent, Gulf tumbled 1.88 percent, Kasikornbank skidded 1.09 percent, PTT Oil & Retail stumbled 1.32 percent, PTT perked 0.78 percent, PTT Exploration and Production dropped 0.97 percent, PTT Global Chemical shed 0.52 percent, SCG Packaging lost 0.48 percent, Siam Commercial Bank jumped 1.75 percent, Siam Concrete weakened 2.07 percent, Thai Oil surrendered 2.35 percent, TTB Bank collected 0.72 percent and Bangkok Bank, Krung Thai Bank, Krung Thai Card and Thailand Airport were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is solidly negative as the major averages opened lower on Friday and stayed in the red throughout the session, finishing near daily lows.

The Dow tumbled 336.98 points or 1.02 percent to finish at 32,816.92, while the NASDAQ slumped 195.46 points or 1.69 percent to close at 11,394.94 and the S&P 500 sank 42.28 points or 1.05 percent to end at 3,970.04.

For the holiday-shortened week, the S&P dove 2.7 percent, while the Dow plunged 3.0 percent and the NASDAQ plummeted 3.3 percent.

The early sell-off on Wall Street came after the Commerce Department reported an unexpected acceleration in the annual rate of growth by core consumer prices in January.

The unexpected spike in core consumer prices added to recent concerns about the outlook for interest rates as the Federal Reserve may be inclined to leave interest rates higher for longer.

After coming under pressure early in the session, the price of crude oil showed a big turnaround over the course of the trading day on Friday. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery jumped $0.93 or 1.2 percent to $76.32 after falling as low as $74.09 a barrel in early trading.