Foreign fund inflows continue to target Thailand and the baht is expected to retain its upward trend in the short term, Stock Exchange of Thailand executive vice-president Pakorn Peetathawatchai said.
The kingdom is one of the most attractive places in the region as economic growth is solid and listed firms show strong earnings growth, he said.
Mr Pakorn said that since the Thai stock market was upgraded to an advanced emerging market in November last year, the trading volume of foreigners had increased from 7-8 billion to 12 billion baht per day.
However, most fund inflows still focus on ploughing money into the Thai bond market.
Mr Pakorn said the baht has gained around 5% per year for more than 10 years, and it is now strengthening quickly, but listed firms can cope with currency appreciation as they all have the experience to handle volatility.
Kongkiat Opaswongkarn, chief executive at Asia Plus Securities, said the banking, securities and leasing sectors would show the best returns in the first quarter, especially brokers as trading volume had doubled from the same period last year.
With leasing firms enjoying higher net interest rate margins, these factors would attract fund inflows to the market.
However, some exporters would be hurt by the baht's appreciation, especially the service, electronics, agriculture and food sectors, Mr Kongkiat said.
In the first quarter, the SET index rose 12.15% with market capitalisation of 13.29 trillion baht, up 12.3%.
The average daily trading value of the SET and the Market for Alternative Investment in the first quarter was 64.26 billion baht, and in March alone it reached 72.8 billion baht.
The Thailand Futures Exchange also hit an all-time high of 95,362 contracts per day in March.
Separately, Tisco Asset Management on Monday launched a trigger fund in US stocks with an 8% return target within eight months on the hope that the US economy will recover.
The Tisco US Equity Trigger 8% is a feeder fund that will invest in an exchange-traded fund listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Kampon Adireksombat, head of economic strategy unit of Tisco Financial Group, said it is a good time to invest in US stocks as the market recovers.
Vorasinee Sangvornvetphan, a wealth strategist at Tisco Wealth, said the S&P 500 is expected to rise from 1,550 to 1,700 points within eight months.