Over the last two sessions, the Thai stock market has seen a decline, with a drop of over a twelve points or 0.8 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand is now just under the 1,370 point mark, and it's forecasted to maintain its position on Monday.
The global outlook is uncertain for the Asian markets, as they await both earnings reports and a later Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) rate decision and statement this week. Followed the latter lead, the European markets experienced a rise and the U.S. markets demonstrated mixed results.
On Friday, the SET ended with a slight decrease due to losses from the service, technology, food, and finance sectors.
The index fell 7.94 points or 0.58 percent to end at 1,368.15, after fluctuating between 1,364.41 and 1,379.89 points. The volume traded was substantial, with over 27.67 billion shares valued at over 48.31 billion baht. There were 271 decliners and 185 gainers, while 183 stocks remained unchanged.
Regarding the active stocks, Advanced Info dropped by 0.92 percent, Thailand Airport slipped by 0.42 percent, and Asset World declined by 1.03 percent. Whereas Banpu increased by 0.77 percent, Bangkok Bank capitulated to a 2.44 percent surrender, Bangkok Dusit Medical had a steep fall of 1.80 percent, and Bangkok Expressway had a slight rise of 0.68 percent. The shares of B. Grimm, BTS Group, CP All Public, Charoen Pokphand Foods, Energy Absolute, Gulf, and Krung Thai Card also exhibited notable changes.
The Wall Street performance on Friday offered little guidance for the Thai market, seeing that the major averages initially opened lower, had a midday surge but dipped again before closing.
The Dow rose by 60.33 points or 0.16 percent to end at 38,109.43, while the NASDAQ stumbled, losing 55.14 points or 0.36 percent to close at 15,455.36. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 marginally decreased by 3.19 points or 0.07 percent to finish at 4,890.97. As a result, on a weekly basis, the S&P 500, NASDAQ, and the Dow increased by 1.1 percent, 0.9 percent, and 0.7 percent respectively.
The inconsistent trading patterns on Wall Street were due to the conflicting effects of disappointing earnings from Intel and more subdued than expected consumer-price inflation data.
Investors are also waiting for the Federal Reserve's upcoming monetary policy announcement. Traders are likely to be looking for possible hints about the timing of expected interest rate cuts since it's widely anticipated that the Federal Reserve will hold in this decision.
On Friday, crude oil futures settled higher. This was driven by optimism around demand prospects due to encouraging U.S. economic data, along with a new stimulus rolled out by China's central bank. As a result, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures saw a rise of $0.65 or 0.84 percent to $78.01 a barrel for March, resulting in a 6 percent spike for WTI crude futures during the week.
