Continued Consolidation Called For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, sinking almost 15 points or 0.9 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,620-point plateau and it's expected to open under pressure again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on continuing concerns over the outlook for interest rates and a global recession. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The TSE finished barely lower on Friday following mixed performances from the financial shares and energy companies.

For the day, the index slipped 1.27 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 1,619.01 after trading between 1,612.44 and 1,620.44. Volume was 15.684 billion shares worth 66.310 billion baht. There were 868 decliners and 577 gainers, with 569 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info fell 0.27 percent, while Thailand Airport added 0.34 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical dropped 0 .88 percent, Bangkok Expressway gained 0.52 percent, B. Grimm climbed 1.27 percent, CP All Public strengthened 1.15 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods soared 2.09 percent, Energy Absolute improved 1.32 percent, Gulf gathered 1.40 percent, IRPC declined 1.35 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.35 percent, Krung Thai Bank lost 0.56 percent, Krung Thai Card shed 0.41 percent, PTT Oil & Retail plunged 2.49 percent, PTT sank 0.79 percent, PTT Exploration and Production dipped 0.29 percent, PTT Global Chemical lost 0.53 percent, SCG Packaging retreated 1.31 percent, Siam Commercial Bank rose 0.49 percent, Siam Concrete increased 0.30 percent, Thai Oil slumped 1.37 percent, True Corporation jumped 1.28 percent, TTB Bank tumbled 1.45 percent and Asset World, Banpu, Bangkok Bank and BTS Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened lower on Friday and remained in the red throughout the session.

The Dow tumbled 281.74 points or 0.85 percent to finish at 32,920.46, while the NASDAQ dropped 105.09 points or 0.97 percent to close at 10,705.41 and the S&P 500 sank 43.39 points or 1.11 percent to end at 3,852.36.

For the week, the NASDAQ plunged 2.7 percent, the S&P declined 2.1 percent and the Dow retreated 1.7 percent.

The sell-off on Wall Street came amid ongoing concerns about the outlook for interest rates and the economy. The Fed's hawkish tone in its latest monetary policy announcement has added to worries about the central bank's aggressive rate hikes tipping the economy into a recession.

While inflation has recently shown signs of slowing, the Fed signaled it plans to continue raising interest rates next year.

Crude oil prices fell sharply Friday amid concerns about the outlook for energy demand due to a global economic slowdown. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended down by $1.82 or 2.4 percent at $74.29 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained 4.4 percent in the week.