Losing Streak May Continue For Thai Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, sinking more than a dozen points or 0.8 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just beneath the 1,690-point plateau and it's looking at a soft start again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on pessimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SET finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the food, consumer, finance, service and technology sectors, while the industrial and resource sectors mitigated the overall damage.

For the day, the index sank 12.48 points or 0.78 percent to finish at 1,588.22 after trading between 1,582.38 and 1,600.50. Volume was 9.773 billion shares worth 66.470 billion baht. There were 308 decliners and 161 gainers, with 183 stocks finishing unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened slightly higher on Friday but turned lower by midday and remained under water for the balance of the session.

The Dow dipped 9.45 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 53,559.99, while the NASDAQ sank 138.93 points or 0.52 percent to end at 26,402.42 and the S&P 500 fell 19.23 points or 0.25 percent to close at 7,711.76. For the week, the NASDAQ advanced 0.9 percent and the Dow and S&P 500 both rose 0.5 percent.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street came as Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh's first speech at the Jackson Hole economic symposium was seen as having a hawkish tilt.

Warsh said that oversharing policy deliberations and overcommitting to future decisions can lead markets, businesses, and households astray. However, he said the numbers that are most concerning are in regard to the price-stability side of the Fed's dual mandate.

Following Warsh's remarks, the chances the Fed will raise interest rates by a quarter-point next month have jumped to 57.7 percent from just 35.4 percent, according to CME Group's FedWatch Tool.

Crude oil prices edged lower Friday as the shift by the U.S. to pressure Iran economically rather than by force dampened the risk premium for crude oil. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery eased $0.13 or 0.16 percent at $83.40 per barrel.

Closer to home, Thailand is scheduled to release July figures for imports, exports, trade balance and current account later today. In June, imports jumped 48.9 percent on year and exports climbed an annual 21.1 percent for a trade deficit of $2.70 billion. The current account showed a deficit of $3.50 billion.