Thai share prices closed 2.25 percent lower on Monday amid weak sentiment across Asian markets following last week's losses on Wall Street on pessimism over the US economy, dealers said. They said investors kept in check the fallout from Friday's court ruling on the privatisation of PTT, the biggest company on the Thai bourse.
Trading in PTT has been suspended until it lays out how it will comply with the court's order to hand over its pipeline business to the state. The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) composite index tumbled 18.78 points to 817.62, while the blue chip SET-50 index plunged 15.67 points to 598.41.
Losers overwhelmed gainers 314 to 47, with 81 stocks unchanged on turnover of 1.4 billion shares worth 12.5 billion baht (374 million dollars). The Thai baht closed at 33.63-65 to the dollar, almost unchanged from Friday's 33.60-61. Against the euro, the Thai unit finished at 48.17-40 from 48.88-94.
"All regional markets suffered from Friday's falls on Wall Street as they worried that higher-than-expected inflation would pressure the Fed not to cut interest rates further," said Mayuree Chowvikran, a Siam City Securities analyst. Mayuree said investors were waiting for a cabinet decision Tuesday on the transfer of PTT's pipeline network back to the state.
Thailand's Supreme Administrative Court ruled on Friday that PTT's privatisation was legal but also ordered the energy giant to return its pipeline operations to the state.
"PTT case is just half-way over. The stock market has yet to absorb the impacts of the court's ruling on its trading," Mayuree said. The stock exchange said it was still unclear when trading would resume for PTT, whose market capitalisation is worth 1.01 trillion baht or about 15 percent of Thailand's total market capitalisation of 6.4 trillion baht.
The energy giant's subsidiary PTT Exploration and Production lost 9.00 baht to 149.00. Thai Oil dropped 4.50 to 82.00. The kingdom's top lender Bangkok Bank also fell 2.00 to 113.00. Thai Airways International shed 1.50 to 36.00. Thailand's biggest mobile phone operator, Advanced Info Service, also slipped 2.00 to 94.00.