Thai Bourse May Slip Back Beneath 1,200 Points On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has tracked higher in two straight sessions, advancing almost 50 points or 4.1 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,205-point plateau although it may see a downward correction on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is fairly directionless amidst a lack of catalysts, with oil and biotechnology stocks likely to fall under pressure. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and flat and the Asian bourses are expected to follow suit.

The SET finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the food, industrial, resource and technology sectors.

For the day, the index gained 8.47 points or 0.71 percent to finish at 1,206.58 after trading between 1,195.30 and 1,210.01. Volume was 10.445 billion shares worth 53.775 billion baht. There were 279 gainers and 186 decliners, with 186 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info gained 0.68 percent, while Thailand Airport plunged 3.11 percent, Asset World tanked 2.86 percent, Banpu surged 5.38 percent, Bangkok Bank retreated 1.38 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical fell 0.47 percent, Bangkok Expressway improved 0.93 percent, BTS Group slumped 1.12 percent, CP All Public accelerated 2.15 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods jumped 1.76 percent, Energy Absolute spiked 2.92 percent, Kasikornbank collected 1.27 percent, Krung Thai Bank shed 0.47 percent, PTT Oil & Retail climbed 1.60 percent, PTT rallied 1.59 percent, PTT Exploration and Production soared 3.98 percent, PTT Global Chemical strengthened 1.35 percent, SCG Packaging lost 0.56 percent, Siam Commercial Bank improved 0.85 percent, Siam Concrete sank 0.53 percent, Thai Oil stumbled 1.64 percent, True Corporation advanced 0.91 percent, TTB Bank added 0.53 percent and Krung Thai Card, B. Grimm and Gulf were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened slightly higher on Friday but quickly turned lower before ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 142.31 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 44,342.19, while the NASDAQ rose 10.06 points or 0.05 percent to close at 20,895.66 and the S&P 500 dipped 0.57 points or 0.01 percent to end at 6,296.79.

For the week, the NASDAQ jumped 1.5 percent the S&P 500 rose 0.6 percent and the Dow dipped 0.1 percent.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street came on profit taking after the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 reached new record intraday highs at the open.

The pullback came amid a slump by shares of Netflix (NFLX), after the company reported better than expected second quarter results but warned its operating margin in the second half will be lower than the first half.

Crude oil prices turned lower on Friday after OPEC's demand forecast prompted concerns of a production surplus. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery closed down by $0.20 at $67.34 per barrel.