The Thai stock market has moved lower in back-to-back sessions, slipping more than 10 points or 0.8 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,305-point plateau and it may take further damage again on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft amid mixed cues for interest rates. The European markets were sharply lower and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The SET finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the food, industrial, property, resource and service sectors, while the financials and technology stocks provided support.
For the day, the index shed 5.22 points or 0.40 percent to finish at 1,306.56 after trading between 1,304.31 and 1,315.70. Volume was 11.243 billion shares worth 38.680 billion baht. There were 365 decliners and 124 gainers, with 163 stocks finishing unchanged.
Among the actives, Advanced Info improved 0.96 percent, while Asset World skidded 1.15 percent, Banpu tumbled 2.02 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.75 percent, Bangkok Dusit Medical slumped 0.91 percent, Bangkok Expressway accelerated 1.56 percent, B. Grimm plummeted 7.05 percent, BTS Group lost 0.86 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods dropped 0.90 percent, Energy Absolute tanked 2.50 percent, Gulf surrendered 3.11 percent, Kasikornbank improved 0.78 percent, Krung Thai Bank climbed 1,14 percent, Krung Thai Card gained 0.58 percent, PTT Oil & Retail retreated 2.41 percent, PTT Global Chemical plunged 3.17 percent, SCG Packaging sank 0.75 percent, Siam Commercial Bank rallied 1.44 percent, Siam Concrete shed 0.44 percent, Thai Oil declined 0.98 percent, True Corporation soared 2.98 percent, TTB Bank added 0.60 percent and PTT, PTT Exploration and Production, CP All Public and Thailand Airport were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened sharply lower on Friday but rallied to finish mixed and flat.
The Dow dropped 57.94 points or 0.15 percent to finish at 38,589.16, while the NASDAQ rose 21.32 points or 0.12 percent to close at a record 17,688.88 and the S&P 500 dipped 2.14 points or 0.04 percent to end at 5,431.60.
For the week, the NASDAQ surged 3.2 percent, the S&P 500 jumped 1.6 percent and the Dow fell 0.5 percent.
Traders looked to cash in on recent strength in the markets early in the session, but selling pressure became subdued after the Labor Department noted unexpected decreases by U.S. import and export prices in May.
While Federal Reserve officials forecast just one rate cut this year following this week\'s monetary policy meeting, traders are hopeful the predictions will turn out to be overly conservative if inflation continues to slow in the coming months.
Oil futures snapped a four-day winning streak and settled lower on Friday after data showed a jump in U.S. crude inventories, while a stronger greenback weighed as well. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July fell $0.17 or about 0.22 percent at $78.45 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained nearly 4 percent in the week.