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DARANA CHUDASRI
Promoting the new SET-FTSE series, from left: Patareeya Benjapolchai, the SET president; Donald Keith, deputy CEO of the FTSE Group; Pakorn Malakul Na Ayudhya, the SET chairman; and Paul Hoff, Asia-Pacific managing director for the FTSE Group. |
The Stock Exchange of Thailand and the FTSE Group will launch an Islamic index and customised sector indices within the next six months.
An Islamic index would comprise companies operating in industries complaint with Islamic law.
Customised sector indices, meanwhile, would highlight certain key industries such as hospitality and tourism to appeal to institutional investors.
The SET and FTSE yesterday formally launched the new FTSE SET index series, a group of six indices aimed at complementing the existing SET, SET50 and SET100 indices.
SET president Patareeya Benjapolchai said the series and collaboration with the FTSE Group were part of the exchange's plan to strengthen its international presence and competitiveness.
''The index series is expected to furnish the Thai capital market with internationally recognised benchmark indices, and lead to the opportunity to create other financial instruments such as structured products, exchange-traded funds and derivatives products,'' she said.
FTSE sector indices, Mrs Patareeya said, would differ from the existing SET sector indices in that they could be customised based on customer specifications. An Islamic index, she added, would help open new opportunities for the Thai market to attract funds from the Middle East.
SET officials last month held a roadshow to Dubai and Abu Dhabi and met with sovereign fund managers overseeing assets of up to $750 billion.
The exchange in the second half plans to introduce a number of new products aimed at institutional investors, including an energy sector exchange-traded fund (ETF) in July, gold futures contracts in September and single-stock futures in the fourth quarter.
The FTSE SET index series includes the FTSE SET Large Cap, FTSE SET Mid Cap, FTSE SET Small Cap, FTSE SET Mid/Small Cap, FTSE SET All-share, and FTSE SET Fledgling.
The Large Cap index is calculated every 15 seconds and is a tradable index usable as an underlying asset for financial products.
The other five indices are calculated every 60 seconds and can be used as a benchmark for portfolio managers.
Each index uses Feb 29, 2008 as the base date at 1,000.
Index constituents will be reviewed each June and December by an advisory committee.
Information on the series can be found at www.set.or.th or www.settrade.com.
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