The Thai stock market bounced higher again on Friday, one session after ending the two-day winning streak in which it had collected more than 7 points or 0.6 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just above the 1,300-point plateau although it\'s likely to head south again on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak, with oil and technology stocks likely to weigh on the markets. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The SET finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the food, consumer, finance, industrial, property and resource sectors, while the technology shares were soft.
For the day, the index added 8.12 points or 0.63 percent to finish at 1,306.41 after trading between 1,289/21 and 1,311.31. Volume was 16.318 billion shares worth 56.556 billion baht. There were 432 gainers and 89 decliners, with 134 stocks finishing unchanged.
Among the actives, Thailand Airport shed 0.82 percent, while Asset World jumped 1.69 percent, Banpu climbed 1.00 percent, Bangkok Bank strengthened 1.54 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical lost 0.96 percent, B. Grimm soared 3.37 percent, BTS Group gathered 1.33 percent, CP All Public increased 0.46 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods rose 0.45 percent, Energy Absolute spiked 3.41 percent, Gulf rallied 3.21 percent, Kasikornbank added 0.40 percent, Krung Thai Card plunged 2.91 percent, PTT Oil & Retail improved 1.25 percent, PTT dropped 0.78 percent, PTT Exploration and Production gained 0.66 percent, PTT Global Chemical surged 4.24 percent, SCG Packaging sank 0.74 percent, Siam Commercial Bank collected 0.47 percent, Siam Concrete advanced 0.90 percent, Thai Oil slumped 0.95 percent, True Corporation tumbled 1.73 percent, TTB Bank accelerated 2.44 percent and Krung Thai Bank, Advanced Info and Bangkok Expressway were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Friday and ultimately finished mixed but little changed.
The Dow added 15.53 points or 0.04 percent to finish at 39,150.33, while the NASDAQ shed 32.24 points or 0.18 percent to end at 17,689.36 and the S&P 500 dipped 8.55 points or 0.16 percent to close at 5,464.62.
For the holiday-shortened week, the Dow jumped 1.5 percent and the S&P 500 climbed 0.6 percent, while the NASDAQ was nearly unchanged.
The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders assessed recent activity in the markets, which saw the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 reach new record intraday highs before turning lower.
Traders also kept an eye on shares of Nvidia (NVDA), as the AI darling has recently been a key driver of the markets. It dragged the technology shares lower after slumping 3.2 percent on Friday after briefly surpassing Microsoft (MSFT) as the world\'s most valuable public company.
On the economic front, the National Association of Realtors said existing home sales in the U.S. fell roughly in line with estimates in May. A separate report from the Conference Board said leading U.S. economic indicators fell more than expected last month.
Oil futures settled lower on Friday, weighed down by concerns about the outlook for global oil demand and a firm greenback. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for July shed $0.56 or 0.7 percent at $80.73 a barrel for the week but gained 3 percent for the week.