Thai Bourse May Be Stuck In Neutral On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Friday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had climbed almost 20 points or 1.3 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,540-point plateau and it's expected to see limited movement on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to lower on concerns over the situation in the Middle East and on the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were barely in the red and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SET finished sharply lower on Friday following losses from the technology stocks, while the finance, industrial and service sectors offered support.

For the day, the index slumped 16.21 point or 1.04 percent to finish at 1,542.34 after trading between 1,537.96 and 1,549.82. Volume was 8,779 billion shares worth 66.478 billion baht. There were 221 gainers and 196 decliners, with 242 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info fell 0.28 percent, while Thailand Airport was up 1.22 percent, Asset World increased 0.73 percent, Banpu advanced 0.96 percent, Bangkok Bank rose 0.28 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical rallied 2.72 percent, B. Grimm lost 0.58 percent, BTS Group accelerated 0.97 percent, CP All Public gained 0.56 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods added 0.51 percent, Gulf slumped 1.24 percent, Kasikornbank collected 1.42 percent, Krung Thai Card improved 0.78 percent, PTT Oil & Retail expanded 0.83 percent, PTT jumped 1.45 percent, PTT Exploration and Production gathered 0.39 percent, PTT Global Chemical spiked 2.38 percent, SCG Packaging dropped 0.91 percent, Siam Commercial Bank climbed 1.05 percent, Siam Concrete shed 0.41 percent, Thai Oil soared 4.47 percent, True Corporation strengthened 1.60 percent, TTB Bank vaulted 1.67 percent and Krung Thai Bank, Energy Absolute and Bangkok Expressway were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened lower on Friday, peeked back above the unchanged line by midday but slumped again heading into the close.

The Dow shed 44.51 points or 0.09 percent to finish at 51,876.11, while the NASDAQ sank 60.99 points or 0.24 percent to close at 25,297.62 and the S&P 500 eased 3.47 points or 0.05 percent to end at 7,354.02.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street came un the ambiguity surrounding the peace process in the U.S.-Iran conflict, while the earlier positive bounce was the result of sliding crude oil prices.

Crude oil prices tumbled on Friday as optimism increases on resumption of oil flow from the Arab region. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery was down $2.60 or 3.62 percent at $69.32 per barrel.

In economic news, revised data released by the University of Michigan showed consumer sentiment in the U.S. rebounded slightly more than estimated in June. The University of Michigan said its consumer sentiment index for June was upwardly revised to 49.5 from the previously reported 48.9.