Thai PM eases worries over bourse
PRIME Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha does not want people to think that last week’s announcement of an election timetable is behind the recent rise in the Thai stock market, government spokesperson Lieutenant General Sansern Kaewkamnerd said Friday.
The bump in the Thai bourse was also a vote of confidence by investors in the military government’s management of the economy, he said.
The SET is among the top-10-performing global bourses, said Sansern. The index on Tuesday broke 1,700, the highest in 23 years after Prayut announced that an election would be held in November next year. He was apparently confirming for Thai citizens what he had already promised US President Donald Trump during their White House meeting earlier this month.
Prayut’s announcement created confusion because Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan had earlier denied the election timetable.
“Prime Minister General Prayut did not want people to believe that the announcement of the election timetable was the only thing pushing the index up,” said Sansern.
Quoting Prayut, he said the market had also risen “because investors have confidence in the government’s management of the country that has restored peace and initiated a series of reforms that would underpin the country fundamentals in the long run”.
The prime minister was also pleased that the Stock Exchange of Thailand had advanced into the top 10 bourses as rated by Corporate Knights magazine in a report titled Measuring sustainability disclosure: Ranking the world’s stock exchanges 2017. The evaluation was sponsored by Aviva PLC, a British insurance multinational.
Prayut wants to the general public to view the stock market as not being only for rich investors, but also as a place for savings and investment for the wider general public, said Sansern.