Ahead of Monday\'s holiday for Asarnha Bucha Day, the Thai stock market had turned lower again - one session after ending the three-day slide in which it had given up more than a dozen points or 0.8 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now rests just beneath the 1,320-point plateau although it\'s expected to open to the upside on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive, with bargain hunting among the technology stocks expected to fuel the rally. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian markets are expected to follow suit.
The SET finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the food, consumer, finance, industrial and resource sectors.
For the day, the index lost 7.62 points or 0.58 percent to finish at the daily low of 1,317.14 after trading as high as 1,324.57. Volume was 7.150 billion shares worth 37.836 billion baht. There were 346 decliners and 130 gainers, with 179 stocks finishing unchanged.
Among the actives, Thailand Airport was down 0.43 percent, while Asset World skidded 1.02 percent, Banpu tumbled 1.92 percent, Bangkok Bank plunged 3.64 percent, B. Grimm retreated 1.80 percent, BTS Group dipped 0.48 percent, CP All Public dropped 0.87 percent, Charoen Pokphand Foods fell 0.42 percent, Energy Absolute plummeted 4.72 percent, Gulf jumped 1.68 percent, Kasikornbank collected 0.39 percent, Krung Thai Bank and SCG Packaging both stumbled 1.72 percent, Krung Thai Card lost 0.63 percent, PTT Oil & Retail slid 0.61 percent, PTT sank 0.77 percent, PTT Exploration and Production slumped 2.00 percent, PTT Global Chemical surrendered 3.51 percent, Siam Concrete added 0.44 percent, Thai Oil eased 0.47 percent, True Corporation climbed 1.10 percent, TTB Bank shed 0.56 percent and Siam Commercial Bank, Advanced Info, Bangkok Dusit Medical and Bangkok Expressway were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened higher and mostly stayed that way throughout the trading day.
The Dow climbed 127.91 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 40,415.44, while the NASDAQ surged 280.63 points or 1.58 percent to end at 18,007.57 and the S&P 500 rallied 59.41 points or 1.08 percent to close at 5,564.41.
The strength on Wall Street came as tech stocks regained ground following the steep drop seen last week, which saw the NASDAQ plunge by 3.7 percent. AI darling and tech sector leader Nvidia (NVDA) led the rebound, spiking 4.8 percent.
The advance by Nvidia also lent considerable strength to the semiconductor stocks, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index soaring 4.0 percent after ending last week at its lowest closing level in over a month.
Stocks also moved higher after President Joe Biden announced his decision to drop out of the presidential race and endorsed his Vice President Kamala Harris.
Crude oil futures eased on Monday, declining for the third consecutive session on concerns about the outlook for oil demand and renewed hopes of a ceasefire in Gaza. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended down $0.35 or at $79.78 a barrel.