News Feed

A total of 125 companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand and Market for Alternative Investment have announced combined interim dividend payments of Bt95.74 billion for the first half of 2016, representing a dividend-pay-out ratio of 68 per cent, up from 60 per cent in the same period last year.
This indicated stronger financial health and improved liquidity, the bourse said.
SET senior executive vice president Santi Kiranand said that as of August 31, 125 companies (excluding property funds) had announced dividends for the first six months of 2016, consisting of 105 SET-listed firms with dividends worth of Bt95 billion and 20 MAI-listed firms with dividends worth Bt739 million. Of that, Bt74.1 billion or 77 per cent of total dividends was from companies on SET50 (top 50 large-cap companies).
The five SET-listed firms that paid the highest dividends were Advanced Info Service (AIS), PTT, Siam Cement (SCC), Land and Houses (LH) and Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF). Their aggregate interim dividends were Bt52.55 billion, or 70 per cent of the SET’s total interim dividends by value.

TAPIOCA ON THE BLOCK
The Commerce Ministry will open bidding for 226,745 tonnes of tapioca from the government’s stockpiles built up from 2009 to 2014.
Bids will be accepted on September 13 from 9am to noon.
The auction is aimed at clearing the stockpiles, which had been built up during a period of low market demand for tapioca.
Meanwhile, permanent secretary Chutima Bunyapraphasara said the ministry would suspend the bidding for good-quality rice from now until the end of the main harvest season next year in order to prevent the rice price from falling.