Kesara envisions world-leading SET

Kesara envisions world-leading SET

Competitiveness the main focus at bourse

Being a successor to one of the most outstanding presidents of the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) is obviously tough for Kesara Manchusree.

Mrs Kesara said she plans to carry on the vision of the man she is succeeding, the much-respected Charamporn Jotikasthira.

On the other hand, the healthy state of the local bourse means that Mrs Kesara can continue to pursue its current development plans when she takes the helm of the SET in June, moving from her current role as president of the Thailand Futures Exchange (TFEX).

Mrs Kesara said she plans to carry on the vision of the man she is succeeding, the much-respected Charamporn Jotikasthira, to make the SET one of the world's leading bourses over the next decade.

Under Mr Charamporn's leadership, the SET grew three-fold in terms of trading volume and became the top trading market in Asean, surpassing the Singapore Exchange for the past two years.

During his four-year term, the market has seen a great improvement in competitiveness with the development of a trading system that serves higher trading demand, offers new products and facilitates investors who want to trade on their preferred platform and destination, as well as working together with overseas peers.

Last year, the combined trading of the SET and its sister bourse, the Market for Alternative Investment, was about 50.3 billion baht, leading Asean trading and setting a record high for the SET’s historical trading.

Mrs Kesara has also successfully driven the growth of the Thailand Futures Exchange during her term.

She said her main focus at the SET will be its competitiveness to maintain its prominent trading growth rate over the next decade.

To accomplish this mission, she said the SET will continue its hard work in increasing trading value, adding more investors and alternative products for investors, and implementing an educational programme to improve the quality of investors.

"We are gearing towards almost the same strategy, but the market will be moving forward as we apply the new technology," said Mrs Kesara.

For example, the SET-CONNECT trading system installed two years ago has been key to boosting trading volume tremendously during the past term.

Mrs Kesara said the new system will once again play a crucial role in increasing volume, but a new platform will be added this month to stretch the system's ability to better serve investors' demand with the trade of multiple currencies in line with the global trend.

"The new trading system will update the Thai bourse to be as modern as other global exchanges," said Mrs Kesara.

After that, the SET will gradually launch several new products that meet investors' demand, especially derivative products through the SET and TFEX, while a clearing and settlement house on a new platform will be completed by the end of the year.

Next year the SET plans to cooperate or join with other clearing-house markets, said Mrs Kesara.

The SET plans to increase market capitalisation from the current 12 trillion baht by adding more infrastructure funds, holding companies and new listing firms from the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) and Asean countries.

Three infrastructure funds launched on the SET achieved great success last year, with a total valuation of 126.9 billion baht out of a total market IPO of 346.51 billion baht, the highest among Asian markets.

The funds listed were BTS Rail Mass Transit Growth Infrastructure Fund (BTSGIF), Amata B Grimm Power Plant Infrastructure Fund (ABPIF) and True Telecommunications Growth Infrastructure Fund (TRUEIF).

This year will see a new infrastructure fund from Jasmine International Plc, worth 50-60 billion baht, to be launched in June or early in the third quarter.

Mrs Kesara also expects new SET listings from Greater Mekong Subregion companies, with some deals already in the pipeline.

"We expect the listing rules for the GMS to be completed in the second half," she said.

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