Thai Stock Market Tipped To Open In The Green

(RTTNews) - Ahead of Friday's holiday in observance of King Maha's birthday, the Thai stock market had alternated between positive and negative finishes through the previous six trading days since the end of the three-day winning streak in which it had more than 20 points or 1.3 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,545-point plateau and it's predicted to open higher om Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on easing inflation concerns and an improved outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The SET finished sharply higher on Thursday following gains from the food, finance, industrial, technology and energy companies.

For the day, the index climbed 18.68 points or 1.23 percent to finish at 1,543.27 after trading between 1,520.89 and 1,546.27. Volume was 15.111 billion shares worth 62.686 billion baht. There were 362 gainers and 108 decliners, with 165 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info rose 0.45 percent, while Thailand Airport perked 0.35 percent, Asset World gathered 1.38 percent, Banpu soared 3.74 percent, Bangkok Bank dropped 0.87 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical jumped 1.77 percent, Bangkok Expressway added 0.56 percent, B. Grimm surged 5.44 percent, BTS Group climbed 1.30 percent, CP All Public gained 1.62 percent, Energy Absolute skyrocketed 9.13 percent, Gulf soared 3.09 percent, Kasikornbank strengthened 1.63 percent, Krung Thai Card spiked 2.70 percent, PTT Oil & Retail retreated 1.40 percent, PTT sank 0.71 percent, PTT Global Chemical jumped 1.95 percent, SCG Packaging rallied 2.56 percent, Siam Commercial Bank collected 0.91 percent, Siam Concrete improved 1.26 percent, Thai Oil gained 0.51 percent, True Corporation surged 3.60 percent, TTB Bank shed 0.59 percent and Charoen Pokphand Foods, Krung Thai Bank and PTT Exploration and Production were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is solid as the major averages opened higher on Friday and remained in the green throughout the trading day.

The Dow jumped 176.59 points or 0.50 percent to finish at 35,459.29, while the NASDAQ surged 266.56 points or 1.90 percent to end at 14,316.66 and the S&P 500 advanced 44.82 points or 0.99 percent to close at 4,582.23.

The strength on Wall Street was the result of encouraging earnings updates from top tech firms and data showing a slowdown in the annual rate of growth in consumer prices in June.

Easing worries about interest rates following the Federal Reserve hinting at a pause in hikes as early as September helped as well.

The slowdown in the annual rate of consumer price growth may ease concerns about the outlook for interest rates following Thursday's better-than-expected economic data.

Oil prices climbed higher on Friday, and the most active futures contract posted gains for the fifth straight week amid easing U.S. recession fears and on optimism over increased demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude futures for September added $0.49 or 0.6 percent at $80.58 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained 4.6 percent in the week.