KSecurities unveils strategy

Thiti Tantikulanan, executive chairman of KSecurities, said yesterday that the company would deploy a strategy to join the top three players in the market. KSecurities differentiates itself by designing products that respond to all customers’ desired investment styles. Working with Kasikornbank to expand their customer base, KSecurities will focus on high-income customers aiming to invest in a variety of instruments. The company has developed modern technology needed for efficient online trading, while research reports will be available on 120 listed companies in all industries this year. The move is to match the demands of both institutional and retail investors. 

“KSecurities has 42,000 customers, of whom 10,200 were acquired since early this year. The company expects to have gained 18,000 new customers by the end of this year. Active investors make up 43 per cent of all accounts – higher than the market average

“Most of the new customers, or 66 per cent, trade stocks online. They may have a small trading volume relative to those trading through the company’s marketing officers, but online traders are set to increase significantly. Therefore, the company has developed state-of-the-art trading technology to efficiently support these customers’ trading style,” he said.

This year, KSecurities will continue to enhance the investment knowledge of its customers through the KS Investment Academy concept that offers useful knowledge of the capital market through diverse activities, which have been held in Bangkok and upcountry for several years. 

These activities include “KS The Young Turk Investor” Season 4, a broad range of seminars and training courses, and investment know-how provided through TV programmes, books and social media for efficient access to all groups of customers.

The outlook for the rest of this year will improve as the stock market turns up in tandem with the global economic recovery, although the recent re-appreciation of the yen and the weakening baht, which triggered the unwinding of the yen carry trade, have caused stocks to plunge at home and abroad.

Market concerns over a possible pullback in quantitative easing programmes, which may impact liquidity in global stock markets, have also caused investors to trade stocks at a lower price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio. KSecurities is of the view that the SET at 1,300-1,400 has already absorbed the profit-taking and is now primed for bargain hunting.

“We recommend range trading as an investment strategy for the third quarter when the market turnaround will become apparent, in tandem with the global economic recovery particularly in the western part of the world, such as the US and Europe.

“These are major factors that will drive the Thai bourse towards the end of this year. Therefore, KSecurities maintains our SET Index (year-end) target at 1,700,” he added.