The Thai stock market has finished higher now in back-to-back sessions, collecting nearly 6 points or 0.6 percent along the way. The Stock Exchange of Thailand finished just above the 1,020-point plateau, although now traders are bracing for renewed selling pressure at the opening of trade on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets remains very soft on continuing concerns over the health of the world's economy. Oil stocks are likely to head south, as are the technology stocks and properties. The European and U.S. bourses ended lower on Friday, and the Asian markets are also expected to track to the downside.
The SET finished slightly higher as the financial shares and the energy producers ended mostly in positive territory.
For the day, the index added 3.52 points or 0.35 percent to finish at 1,020.37 after trading between 1,017.44 and 1,025.56. Volume was 2.527 billion shares worth 21.885 billion baht. There were 298 gainers and 130 decliners, with 141 stocks finishing unchanged.
Among the actives, energy giant PTT was up 0.30 percent, while PTT Chemical shed 0.36 percent, Siam Commercial Bank added 0.47 percent, Bangkok Bank collected 0.33 percent and Kasikornbank lost 0.45 percent.
Wall Street offers little encouragement as stocks saw substantial weakness on Friday, with traders expressing continued concerns about the outlook for the global economy. The markets moved back to the downside after seeing a brief respite from the recent selling pressure in the previous session.
The weakness on Wall Street was partly due to disappointing economic news from overseas, with a report from the Chinese Customs Office showing a narrower than expected Chinese trade surplus. The Chinese trade surplus widened to $13.05 billion in May from a surplus of $11.4 billion in April, although economists had been expecting a surplus of $19.8 billion. Chinese exports rose at an annual rate of 19.4 percent in May, slower than the 29.9 percent growth in April, raising concerns about global consumption.
In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department said that import prices edged up by 0.2 percent in May following a 2.1 percent jump in April. A 0.2 percent decline in prices for imported fuel limited the upside for import prices. The report also showed that export prices rose by 0.2 percent in May after advancing by 0.9 percent in the previous month. Prices for agricultural exports fell by 2.0 percent after rising in each of the nine previous months.
Among individual stocks, Diodes (DIOD) fell sharply after it lowered its gross margin guidance for the second quarter. The company cited a mix shift due to softening demand and a slower than expected recovery from manpower shortages at its Chinese packaging facilities.
Toyota (TM) also ended the day in the red after the auto giant said it expects sharply lower profits in its first-half and fiscal year 2012, reflecting the anticipated decline in vehicle sales due the ongoing impact of the earthquake in Japan.
Meanwhile, National Semiconductor (NSM) closed modestly higher after reporting fourth quarter earnings of $0.26 per share on sales that fell 6 percent to $374.1 million. Analysts had expected the company to earn $0.27 per share on sales of $365.1 million.
The major averages ended the day sharply lower, at their worst closing levels in well over two months. The Dow plunged 172.45 points or 1.4 percent to 11,951.91, the NASDAQ sank 41.14 points or 1.5 percent to 2,643.73 and the S&P 500 plummeted 18.02 points or 1.4 percent to 1,270.98. The steep losses on the day contributed to another week of losses for the major averages. The Dow fell by 1.6 percent for the week, while the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 posted weekly losses of 3.2 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively.
In economic news, Thailand's international reserves rose to $186.89 billion in the week ended June 3 from $186.2 billion at the end of the previous week, data from Bank of Thailand showed on Friday. Gold reserves totaled $5.465 billion, up from $5.4 billion in the previous week. Special Drawing Rights amounted to $1.56 billion, compared to $1.55 billion in the previous week. Thailand's reserve position with the International Monetary Fund rose to $600.6 million from $596.4 million in the preceding week. Foreign currency reserves totaled $179.26 billion, more than $178.6 billion in the previous week.
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