Thai Shares May Tick Lower Again On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has finished lower in two straight sessions, slipping almost 20 points or 1.6 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,260-point plateau and it figures to remain rangebound again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky amid a cloudy outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

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

For the day, the index shed 7.25 points or 0.57 percent to finish at 1,259.42 after trading between 1,253.51 and 1,270.89. Volume was 9.840 billion shares worth 48.320 billion baht. There were 258 decliners and 232 gainers, with 158 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info shed 0.67 percent, Thailand Airport increased 1.30 percent, Asset World rallied 2.52 percent, Banpu sank 0.83 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical plummeted 3.69 percent, Bangkok Expressway declined 0.91 percent, B. Grimm slumped 0.88 percent, BTS Group tumbled 1.74 percent, CP All Public lost 0.54 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods improved 0.83 percent, Energy Absolute gained 0.76 percent, Gulf skidded 1.05 percent, Krung Thai Bank jumped 1.66 percent, Krung Thai Card dropped 0.85 percent, PTT Oil & Retail plunged 2.96 percent, PTT Exploration and Production added 0.43 percent, PTT Global Chemical retreated 1.30 percent, SCG Packaging tanked 2.31 percent, Siam Commercial Bank collected 0.77 percent, Siam Concrete fell 0.50 percent, Thai Oil climbed 1.55 percent, True Corporation advanced 0.93 percent, TTB Bank strengthened 1.56 percent and Bangkok Bank, Kasikornbank and PTT were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened mixed on Friday and stayed that way throughout the session, ending on opposite sides of the unchanged line.

The Dow added 34.82 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 44,946.12, while the NASDAQ sank 87.72 points or 0.40 percent to close at 21,622.98 and the S&P 500 fell 18.74 points or 0.29 percent to end at 6,449.80. For the week, the NASDAQ added 0.8 percent, the S&P gained 0.9 percent and the Dow jumped 1.7 percent.

The weakness in the broader markets followed the release of mixed batch of U.S. economic data, which has led to some uncertainty about the outlook for the economy and interest rates.

While the Commerce Department said retail sales increased in line with estimates in July, the University of Michigan noted an unexpected deterioration in consumer sentiment in August.

On the inflation front, year-ahead inflation expectations jumped to 4.9 percent in August from 4.5 in July, while the Labor Department said import prices increased more than expected last month and the Federal Reserve saw a slight pullback by industrial production in July.

Crude oil traded lower on Friday ahead of the meeting between the presidents of the U.S. and Russia, which ultimately accomplished nothing. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was down $1.20 or 1.88 percent at $62.76 per barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand is scheduled to release Q2 numbers for gross domestic product starting on Monday; in the three months prior, GDP was up 0.7 percent on quarter and 3.1 percent on year.