Low SET trading volume hits K Securities
Kasikorn Securities is finding it tough to boost market share to the level projected for the year, as average daily trading volume on the Stock Exchange of Thailand has been lower than the company expected.
The company earlier estimated that the SET’s daily trading average over the year would be Bt29 billion, which would help boost its market share to 8 per cent from the 3.39 per cent achieved last year, Nattharin Talthong, executive chairwoman of Kasikorn Securities and head of KGroup Private Banking Business, said yesterday.
However, the average in the first half of the year came in at Bt25 billion, as a result of which its market share rose to 5.59 per cent during the period, she said.
Although the brokerage faces a difficult challenge to achieve an 8-per-cent share if the daily trading average remains stable at around Bt25 billion, it has decided to maintain the market-share target, as well the revenue goal of Bt1.804 billion for the full year, she added.
“We believe our revenue could grow by 35 per cent based on average daily trading volume of Bt29 billion. About 81 per cent of our revenue comes from brokerage services, and 12 per cent from investment banking,” Nattharin said.
Revenue from investment banking this year is expected to grow to Bt210 million from Bt195 million last year because the company has 10 deals in the pipeline. At least four of these will be completed by the end of the year, with the remainder likely to be finalised next year, she said.
Achieving a higher market |share will partly be down to investors in the provinces, because the company aims to expand its investor base strongly in the provincial market in the current second half of the year, in line with the direction of its parent company, Kasikornbank.
KGroup’s strategy is for the focus to be on the customer base outside Bangkok, and in 14 strategic provinces in particular.
Kasikorn Securities will open 10 branches in the provinces and another 14 in Bangkok over the remainder of the year, giving it a 52-branch network, she said.
The company also plans to roll out new products such as derivatives and structured notes in the fourth quarter.
The securities house brought in 6,000 new accounts in the first half, against a full-year target of 13,360, Nattharin said, adding that it hoped to welcome another 7,000 account holders in the second half.
This would give the company a total of about 35,000 accounts.
