Freefall May Continue For Thai Shares

The Thai stock market has finished lower in two straight sessions - bisected by a three-day break for the Songkran Festival - and has plunged more than 50 points or 7 percent in the process. The Stock Exchange of Thailand fell below the 740-point plateau, and now investors are bracing for continued selling pressure when the market kicks off trade on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly negative, with financials leading the way lower after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday charged Goldman Sachs with fraud. Commodity prices also remain caught up in that tailspin, as do properties, airlines and steel stocks. The European and U.S. markets finished sharply lower, and the Asian markets are forecast to respond in similar fashion.

The SET finished sharply lower on Friday, thanks to continued political tensions between the government and the red shirt protestors who want to see immediate new elections. Energy stocks led the market lower, while the financials also were weak.

For the day, the index plunged 24.74 points or 3.25 percent to finish at the daily low of 736.16 after peaking at 750.61. Volume was 2.653 billion shares worth 29.763 billion baht. There were 301 decliners and 62 gainers, with 95 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the decliners, energy giant PTT was down 3.52 percent, while PTT Exploration and Production shed 1.37 percent, PTT Chemical lost 3.32 percent, Siam Concrete plunged 5.95 percent, coal producer Banpu eased 0.67 percent, Siam Commercial Bank declined 4.12 percent and Kasikornbank plummeted 7.88 percent.

The lead from Wall Street calls for heavy damage as stocks saw substantial weakness on Friday, after the SEC filed fraud charges against Goldman Sachs, whipping up a storm of uncertainty in the markets. The major averages all closed sharply lower on the day, snapping a six-session winning streak.

Late in the morning, the SEC charged Goldman Sachs and one of its vice presidents with fraud, sending markets into a tailspin. Goldman stands accused of creating a collateralized debt obligation designed to fail while also shorting the instrument, resulting in a substantial gain for the firm. Shares of Goldman Sachs sank by 12.8 percent on the news and closed at their lowest price in just over six weeks.

Ahead of the news, the markets were focused on earnings, as rising costs at Google (GOOG) and disappointing guidance from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) prompted initial weakness.

On the economic front, Reuters and the University of Michigan released a report showing a substantial deterioration in consumer sentiment in the month of April, further contributing to early selling pressure.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said that new residential construction saw a modest increase in the month of March, while February's data saw a substantial upward revision.

The major averages all saw choppy movement in late-session dealing, remaining well below the unchanged line. The Dow fell by 125.91 points or 1.1 percent to 11,018.66, the NASDAQ slid by 34.43 points or 1.4 percent to 2,481.26 and the S&P 500 tumbled by 19.54 points or 1.6 percent to 1,192.13.

Despite the steep losses on the day, the Dow and the NASDAQ managed to close higher for the seventh straight week. The Dow edged up by 0.2 percent for the week, while the NASDAQ jumped 1.1 percent. On the other hand, the S&P 500 posted a weekly loss of 0.2 percent.