TRADE TARGET

SET aims for its average daily trading value to hit 100 billion baht and its market capitalisation to double by 2020.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) aims for its average daily trading value to hit 100 billion baht and its market capitalisation to double by 2020.

It plans to raise the number of securities-trading accounts to 2.2 million by 2020 from around 1.11 million now, said executive vice-president Santi Kiranand, adding that 30.4% of current trading accounts are active.

The SET aims to expand its investor base to 1.5 million in the next five years through marketing campaigns. It wants to attract 95,000 novice investors this year.

“The number of investors is still small compared with the population. As the number of internet users in Thailand stands at about 30 million, the SET targets this group in driving the number of new investors. This group is close to new data and information,” Mr Santi said.

Novice investors in the SET and the Market for Alternative Investment, a board for smaller companies, surged by 19% to 122,902 last year, of which 15,053 traded online, he said.

The number of online trading accounts totalled 833,210 at the end of January.

The SET’s year-to-date average daily turnover of 57.3 billion baht has surpassed the 2015 target of 52 billion, thanks to improving stock market sentiment. Retail investors were the most influential group, accounting for 67% of trade or 38.4 billion baht.

Online trading value has leapfrogged to 43% of overall turnover from 2-5% in the past five years and the trend is likely to continue, Mr Santi said.

The SET’s market capitalisation amounted t o 14.82 trillion baht as of Monday.

The SET will launch more investment activities and events in provincial areas and use the networks of Thailand Post and Central Pattana Plc (CPN) to be payment channels for mutual fund products.

Cooperation with CPN and Thailand Post will be extended to other products.

In another development, Mr Santi said Thailand Futures Exchange (TFEX) would increase its trading volume following a merger with the Agricultural Futures Exchange of Thailand.

As of January, TFEX had a trading volume of 101,528 contracts per day, up 1% from the end of 2014 and the first time that contracts had hit 100,000.

Online trading accounted for 30.33% of TFEX’s volume in January. Retail investors accounted for 53% of TFEX’s volume, followed by institutional investors at 39% and foreign investors at 8%.

TFEX’s most active products were singlestock futures at 53%, SET50 Index Futures at 43% and gold futures at 3%.