Thais up derivative warrants spending

THE value of average daily trading of derivative warrants in Thailand has hit a new high this year at 9.9 billion baht ($316 million), up 46 per cent from 6.8 billion baht last year, a KGI Securities (Thailand) expert said on March 30.

Janewit Chinkunkunniwat, managing director of KGI Securities’ Derivatives Business Division, said the trading value of derivative warrants from January 1 to March 26 was 576 billion baht thanks to the bounce in Thai stock market.

He said most investors had bought more call warrants rather than put warrants. The top five derivative warrants popular among investors are Krung Thai Card (KTC) with a trading value of 14 billion baht, followed by Global Power Synergy (GPSC) of 11.8 billion baht, Energy Absolute (EA) of 11.7 billion baht, Sri Trang AgroIndustry (STA) of 9.8 billion baht and Srisawad Corporation (SAWAD) of 8.9 billion baht.

“We expect the trading value of derivative warrants to rise further as it accounts for 10 per cent of the capital market,” Janewit said.

KGI Securities has launched 260 derivative warrants in the first three months of this year, compared to 812 for the whole of last year.

Janewit added: “We expect to launch approximately 1,000 derivative warrants by the end of this year.”

Bualuang Securities head of structured products Atthanan Piyaseth expects investors to spend on derivative warrants related to the country reopening in the second quarter of this year.