March 10, 2008
BANGKOK (AFP) - Thai share prices closed 1.82 percent lower on Monday, riding a wave of losses across Asia as markets fell amid fears of a looming recession in the United States, dealers said.
They said investors continued offloading shares in major sectors including energy, banking and technology.
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) composite index lost 14.92 points to 806.65 and the blue-chip SET-50 fell 10.95 points to 581.23.
Losers far led gainers 302 to 49, with 86 stocks unchanged on turnover of 1.87 billion shares worth 15.94 billion baht (505.78 million dollars).
The Thai baht closed at 31.52-53 against the dollar, hardly changed from Friday's 31.52-54. Against the euro, the Thai unit was quoted at 48.47-53 from 48.50-55.
"The Thai market continued falling following other markets across the region -- although to a lesser degree -- mainly due to fears over a recession in the US economy," said Viriya Lappromrattana, senior vice president at Kiatnakin Securities.
Most regional market drops exceeded two percent, with the Malaysian bourse falling nearly 10 percent.
"The (Thai) market is likely to slip further this week as some political factors will return to concern investors," Viriya said.
Thailand's election commission is due in the coming weeks to rule on whether there was vote fraud in December's elections, which could affect the results of the polls which brought an end to more than a year of military rule.
Thailand's biggest energy firm PTT lost 4.00 baht to 320.00 while its subsidiary PTT Exploration and Production fell 2.00 to 151.00.
The kingdom's largest lender Bangkok Bank lost 3.00 to 125.00, while the mobile phone operator, Advanced Info Service, dropped 2.00 to 97.50.
Shares in Thai Airways International were unchanged at 28.50.
