stock exchange

The Thai stock market headed south again on Friday, one session after it had ended the two-day losing streak in which it had given away almost a dozen points or 1 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand finished just below the 1,160-point plateau, and now investors are looking at little movement when the market opens on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed with a slight upside bias following better than expected employment data from the United States in February. Capping the upside, however, were reports that China's trade deficit reached its highest since 1989 - although property stocks and financial shares are still expected to provide support. The European and U.S. markets finished firmly higher, and now the Asian markets are tipped to open slightly in the green.
The SET finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares and energy producers.
For the day, the index dropped 9.60 points or 0.82 percent to finish at 1,158.71 after trading between 1,158.58 and 1,170.60. Volume was 5.665 billion shares worth 37.658 billion baht. There were 290 decliners and 216 gainers, with 135 stocks finishing unchanged.
Among the decliners, energy giant PTT was down 1.68 percent, while PTT Global Chemicals plunged 2.69 percent, coal miner Banpu shed 1.89 percent, Bangkok Bank lost 0.57 percent and Kasikornbank fell 0.34 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the markets saw strength on Friday on better than expected U.S. employment data, although news from Greece limited the upside later in the afternoon.

Traders also reacted positively to news that the Greek government successfully completed a debt swap agreement with 85.8 percent of its private sector bondholders. With the activation of collective action clauses, the participation rate rose to 95.7 percent.
However, stocks gave back ground late in the day after the International Swaps and Derivatives Association said that the exercise of the collective action clauses triggered a credit event, resulting in a payout on credit default swaps.
Among individual stocks, shares of Smith & Wesson (SWHC) surged 22.8 percent after the gun maker reported better than expected Q3 results and raised its full year guidance. Zumiez (ZUMZ) also moved higher after forecasting Q1 results above estimates. Shares of Zumiez rose by 6.2 percent. On the other hand, shares of Texas Instruments (TXN) fell by 1 percent after the chip maker warned over weaker than previously expected first quarter results.The major averages closed well off their best levels but still finished the session in positive territory. The Dow edged up 14.08 points or 0.1 percent to finish at 12,922.02, while the NASDAQ rose 17.92 points or 0.6 percent to 2,988.34 and the S&P 500 climbed 4.96 points or 0.4 percent to 1,370.87. Despite the higher close on the day, the major averages turned in a mixed performance for the week. While the Dow fell by 0.4 percent, the NASDAQ rose by 0.4 percent and the S&P 500 inched up by 0.1 percent.