The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) revealed that MSCI Inc., a global index provider, would add 10 Thai listed companies in its indexes, consisting of three companies – DELTA, EA, TUF - into the MSCI Global Standard Indexes, and the other seven companies added in the MSCI Global Small Cap Indexes. These changes, resulted from MSCI's semi-annual index review, will be effective from November 26.
SET President Kesara Manchusree said, "The three Thai listed companies have been added to MSCI Global Standard Indexes, with no deletions of those previously on the list, making Thailand the country with the highest net addition in Southeast Asia. These companies, having a combined market capitalization of THB 264 billion (USD 8 billion), are Delta Electronics (Thailand) pcl (DELTA), Energy Absolute pcl (EA), the first mai-listed company added in MSCI Global Standard indexes, and Thai Union Frozen Products pcl (TUF). Consequently, the total number of Thai listed companies in the indices has now reached 29."
In addition, seven Thai companies were added to MSCI Global Small Cap Indexes and eight companies were removed. Of those deleted, two stocks (DELTA and EA) were upgraded to MSCI Global Standard Indexes. The additions are Aira Capital pcl (AIRA), E for L AIM pcl (EFORL), Ichitan Group pcl (ICHI), Kaset Thai International Sugar Corporation pcl (KTIS), P.C.S. Machine Group Holding pcl (PCSGH), Srisawad Power 1979 pcl (SAWAD) and Superblock pcl (SUPER). They have a combined market cap of THB 173 billion.
"Thailand remains Southeast Asia’s highest net addition in MSCI indexes, representing remarkable Thai listed companies in terms of size and liquidity compared with the neighboring countries, despite domestic and international volatilities. The increasing number of Thai companies in MSCI will boost investment weighting on the Thai stock market as a whole. Among seven Thai companies in the MSCI Small Cap indexes, five were newly-listed companies this year, namely AIRA, ICHI, KTIS, PCSGH and SAWAD, reflecting their upbeat businesses of newly-listed stocks being well-received by investors,” Kesara added.
According to the MSCI Global Standard Indexes review, four net additions are from ASEAN – three from Thailand and one from Singapore. As for the MSCI Small Cap Indexes, there are 20 net additions from ASEAN - seven from Thailand, four from Singapore, five from Malaysia, three from Indonesia and one from the Philippines. Thus, the most net additions in ASEAN to the two MSCI indexes are from Thailand.
MSCI Indexes are designed as a benchmark to measure equity market performance. They are well-known among foreign institutional investors, especially foreign fund managers who use them as benchmarks to measure Thailand's equity market. MSCI selects companies for inclusion based on their market cap, liquidity and number of tradable shares for foreign investors.