Thai Stock Market Likely Rangebound On Friday

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has finished lower in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day winning streak in which it had risen almost 7 points or 0.5 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,465-point plateau and it's expected to see little movement on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to higher on conflicting messages about the status of the war in the Middle East. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SET finished slightly lower on Thursday following losses from the finance, industrial, property, service and technology sectors.

For the day, the index fell 5.27 points or 0.36 percent to finish at 1,465.72 after trading between 1,459.50 and 1,472.39. Volume was 8.403 billion shares worth 55.258 billion baht. There were 243 decliners and 201 gainers, with 214 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the actives, Advanced Info fell 0.27 percent, while Thailand Airport lost 0.47 percent, Banpu improved 0.84 percent, Bangkok Bank shed 0.59 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical shed 0.52 percent, B. Grimm plunged 3.28 percent, BTS Group dropped 0.93 percent, CP All Public declined 1.62 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods advanced 0.96 percent, Energy Absolute plummeted 4.90 percent, Gulf retreated 1.24 percent, Kasikornbank dipped 0.26 percent, Krung Thai Card tanked 2.44 percent, PTT Oil & Retail increased 0.78 percent, PTT rallied 2.16 percent, PTT Exploration and Production jumped 1.92 percent, SCG Packaging tumbled 1.90 percent, Siam Commercial Bank rose 0.34 percent, Siam Concrete surrendered 1.92 percent, Thai Oil cratered 4.17 percent, True Corporation stumbled 2.07 percent, TTB Bank collected 0.87 percent and Krung Thai Bank, PTT Global Chemical, Asset World and Bangkok Expressway were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is flat to higher as the major averages opened lower on Thursday but quickly bounced higher and hugged the line for most of the day, ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow slipped 61.07 points or 0.13 percent to finish at 46,504.67, while the NASDAQ added 38.23 points or 0.18 percent to end at 21,879.18 and the S&P 500 rose 7.37 points or 0.11 percent to close at 6,582.69.

For the holiday-shortened week, the NASDAQ spiked 4.4 percent, the S&P 500 surged 3.4 percent and the Dow jumped 3 percent.

The early weakness on Wall Street came amid renewed concerns about an escalation of the conflict in the Middle East following President Donald Trump's primetime address Wednesday night.

However, stocks bounced well off their worst levels after a report from Iranian state news said Iran and Oman are drafting a protocol to "monitor transit" through the Strait of Hormuz.

Crude oil prices catapulted Thursday on concerns of supply disruptions following Trump's address. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery was up $11.94 or 11.93 percent at $112.06 per barrel.