SET proceeds with development plans

 At the press briefing today, SET President Charamporn Jotikasthira revealed further plans to boost the market's attractiveness in the second half, with new products and participation in the Asean Link in the third quarter. 
 In this quarter, the listing criteria for holding companies will be revamped, to allow the listing of Thai holding companies with investment in Indochina. To be welcomed are the infrastructure funds and the real estate investment trust (REIT). At the same time, the exchange and brokerage houses are in the final stage in testing the trading system, to prepare for the Asean Link, he said.
 After launch in June, Thailand is scheduled to join the regional trading platform in August.
 In the second quarter, despite the heated problems in the Euro Area which prompted sell-offs in many markets including Thailand, the SET still registered high average daily turnover. In the quarter, daily transactions were valued at about US$1 billion, the highest in Asean. 
 The exchange targets a slight increase in individual trading accounts this year, from 739,862 as of May which rose by 39,637 from end-2011, to 740,000-750,000 at the end of this year. The number of individual futures trading accounts in June increased by 11,205 from end-2011. Thanks to cooperation with brokerage houses, the exchange was successful in achieving the target to boost online transactions to half of total transactions.
 Charamporn also said that the exchange completed the Guidelines for Social Responsibility and the Guidelines for SD Report, to ensure listed companies' compliances to social responsibility requirements for own business sustainability.

Virathai Santiprapop, a vice president of SET, said that despite the Euro Area crisis, the market remained attractive thanks to the strong recovery of the domestic economic and Thai financial institutions' low reliance on foreign funding. While other markets suffered more, the Thai market witnessed a slight decrease in turnover while the Thailand Futures Exchange  welcomed higher transactions thanks to the launch of the dollar futures.
 At the end of June, the SET index at 1,172.11 points showed a 14.32 per cent increase from end-2011. The market capitalisation of the SET rose by 15.49 per cent to Bt9.71 trillion during the period. In the first half, foreign net-buy positions reached Bt64 billion.
 Though 1.69 per cent lower than the same period in the previous year, the daily average turnover in the first half was at Bt30.29 billion. The Thailand Futures Exchange's daily transaction covered 43,768 contracts, up by 41.20 per cent on year.