Thai stocks ended a tad lower on Monday, with gains in blue chip energy, property and bank shares outweighed by profit taking in TPI and steel makers after recent rallies, dealers said.
The benchmark Stock Exchange of Thailand composite index closed down 0.44 points, or 0.07 percent, at 668.29 points, after hitting a five-month high of 676.40 points in early trade.
The big-cap SET 50 rose 0.24 percent to 46.33 points. Turnover edged up to 29.7 billion baht ($719.5 million) from 27.5 billion baht on Friday.
Profit taking emerged after five days of gains, but analysts said the outlook for the market remained positive, with a three-day "Thailand Focus" conference aimed at attracting overseas fund managers a major factor.
"Domestic investors just cashed in on gains after the market has risen over the past week," said BT Securities analyst Piti Ketsiri.
"But foreign funds were still snapping up our stocks," which remained cheap with the overall market trading at about 10 times the price to earnings ratio, against an average of 14 times on other Asian bourses, Piti said.
Foreign investors bought shares worth a net 1.7 billion baht on Friday, taking their net buying to 17 billion baht over 18 days.
The most active stock on Monday, PTT PCL, Thailand's largest oil and gas firm, ended unchanged at 169 baht after hitting a seven-month high in early trade. But PTT Exploration and Production PCL, a PTT subsidiary, rose 2.1 percent to 292 baht, helping push the energy sectoral index up 0.45 percent.
Foreign buying was also seen in blue chip Krung Thai Bank, Thailand's largest state-owed bank, top industrial conglomerate Siam Cement and Bangkok Bank, which were all higher.
Investors also picked up shares in property firms expected to report strong third-quarter earnings, with Land & Houses PCL up 2.1 percent to 9.82 baht.
Developer Areeya Property PCL surged 9.3 percent to 7.65 baht after hitting a five-month high of 7.9 baht.
But Monday's gains were pared partly by falls in steel companies on profit taking after last week's rallies in the run up to a government announcement it would resume anti-dumping duties on foreign products.
Hot-rolled steel coil maker Sahaviriya Steel Industries, fell 3.45 percent to 28 baht, after hitting a five-month high last week.
Nakornthai Strip Mill slipped three percent to 2.02 baht after hitting a four-month high last week. Other fallers included Thai Petrochemical Industry (TPI), the country's biggest corporate debtor, which ended down five percent at 8.65 baht after hitting a three-month high of 9.70 baht last week on optimism about the firm's debt plan.
Finance Minister Somkid Jatusripitak said on Monday he expected a new plan to restructure the $2.95 billion of debt of TPI to get the backing of creditors when they meet next week.
The plan, if approved, would allow the operator of Southeast Asia's largest petrochemicals complex to restructure what remains of the $3.8 billion it owed when it collapsed during the 1997-98 Asian economic crisis. Shin Corp, Thailand's largest telecoms group, shed early gains to close unchanged at 38.44 baht. The stock hit a four-month high in early trade on expected strong third-quarter earnings.