The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) announces that overall performance in the first quarter achieved targets in all aspects of operations, as the exchange gears up to boost its effectiveness to cope with regional competition.
The exchange continues to match the right financial opportunities for listed companies and investors by launching new outstanding products and services and developing systems and channels of trading, making trading faster and more efficient, said SET President Charamporn Jotikasthira. "SET's key performance in the first quarter was as follows: average daily securities trading volume of THB31.25 billion; average derivatives trading volume of 35,101 contracts per day; and market capitalization of new listings worth THB22.77 billion," Charamporn said.
"The bourse will launch currency futures tracking the Thai baht/US dollar exchange rate in the second quarter. To boost speed and efficiency of our trading, we are testing our new trading system with securities firms and plan to commence using it operationally in early July. This will lead to our readiness to join ASEAN Link from August onwards," Charamporn added. In the first quarter, expanding retail investors to boost online trading went well due to continued marketing activities with commercial banks and securities firms. This resulted in the value of Internet trading to rise to 49 percent of total trading by retail investors, almost equal to the target of 50 percent. In developing SET’s technological capability, especially Direct Market Access (DMA) service, the value of trading via DMA in the first quarter rose to THB 965 million per day, up 34 percent from 2011, when the valuation was THB 717 million per day on average,
The bourse has also committed to enhancing listed companies by encouraging them to follow Environment, Society, and Governance (ESG) standards as part of its long-term capital market development. These enhancements will improve and increase the firms’ potential, making them stronger and more capable of enjoying sustainable growth. SET has also provided gap analysis and set additional rules for listed companies to help them upgrade their corporate governance. For knowledge development, Thailand Securities Institute, the SET's education arm, has continued holding seminars and online education programs to enhance financial expertise for all investor targets. This would result in expanding the number of quality investors in the long run and building the expertise of professionals to cope with expansion of the Thai capital market and international competition. For 2012, TSI has also taken a new role as knowledge standard-setting for professionals in the Thai securities business.
Investment sentiment in the first quarter improved from the fourth quarter of last year due to a recovery of Thai economy after the flood crisis, improving 2011 performances of Thai listed firms, the FTSE's upgrade, and hopes of U.S. and Europe economic recovery. Veerathai Santiprabhob, SET Chief Strategy Officer, said. The SET Index reached its closing highest level in 16 years at 1,196.77 points, or up 16.72 percent from the end of last year. In the first quarter, market capitalization of SET and the Market for Alternatives Investment (mai) both hit all-time highs, with SET's market value at THB 9.86 trillion, or up 17.20 percent and mai's at THB 93.07 billion, up 20.38 percent, both from end-2011. The SET dividend yield was at 3.63 percent, the second highest in Asia after Taiwan, but a slight dip from the 3.67 percent of a year earlier. mai's dividend yield was at 2.25 percent. Foreign investors bought a net THB 83.14 billion in the first quarter. The 31.25-billion-baht trading volume of SET and mai rose 33.28 percent from the fourth quarter and up slightly from a year earlier, while the 35,101-contract derivative trading climbed 29 percent from a year earlier in terms of volume. Trading of oil futures rose nearly eight fold from last year to 558 contracts per day on average.