BOT's mobile banking move sparks surge in phone retail shares
The price of mobile phone retail shares has risen sharply after the Bank of Thailand (BOT) moved to ban use of mobile banking services on old or jailbroken phones to prevent cyberattacks.
The new BOT measure will be effective from December 31, forcing many people to buy new phones to access mobile banking.
It will bar access to mobile banking apps for users of rooted or jailbroken phones, as well as devices with outdated operating systems. Users must also set up a PIN or password to use banking apps.
The move lifted share prices of mobile phone retail shares over the past two days.
Shares in Synnex (Thailand) (SYNEX) rose by 17.4 per cent, Hana Microelectronics (HANA) by 10.2 per cent and , Jaymart (JMART) by 9.9 per cent, and Com7 (COM7) by 3.8 per cent.
The companies' performance was expected to improve through the second half of 2020, said Supachai Wattanavitheskul, an analyst at Yuanta Securities (Thailand).
Many people also expect the launch of 5G in the second half of the year will mean they have to buy new mobile phones to use the technology, he pointed out.
He also expects the share price of COM7, Apple's official distributor in Thailand, to increase after Apple shares hit a new high recently.
"Also, JMART gained positive sentiment from its subsidiaries' second-quarter results, while SYNEX's second-quarter performance is expected to be strong," he said.
He predicted mobile phone retail shares would rise by around 10 per cent in the second half of 2020.
"However, investors should be careful when speculating on these shares since the price is currently high and they could face mass sell-offs if performance or business direction is not as investors expect," he added.
Passakorn Linmaneechote, managing director at Kasikorn Securities, affirmed that the BOT measure had lifted mobile phone retail shares but urged caution over a saturation point in mobile use.
"This positive sentiment will not support the shares as much as expected because the number of internet banking and mobile banking accounts is currently around 61 million [in Thailand], while the number of SIM cards is around 100 million," he said.
Meanwhile, most current users of internet and mobile banking have new phones and operating systems, while those with old phones may not want to use these services, he added.
