The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET)’s three-year strategic plan (2018-2020) has been conceived under the theme of “Towards Sustainable Growth with Innovation” in order to make innovations a key drive for the Thai capital market to grow sustainably and to make the capital market works for everyone, while retaining its leadership in ASEAN.
The plan is in line with the Capital Market Development Plan and the government’s policies, through three strategies: 1) Strengthen core exchange business with quality by expanding the number of quality domestic and overseas SET-listed firms while promoting investment culture via digital platform to provide easier access to knowledge and encourage long-term savings to accommodate Thailand’s aging society; 2: Create business opportunities for long-term growth through the promotion of investment in startups and SMEs in order to help them gain better access to funding through the innovative LiVE platform while connecting fund-raising with investment in CLMV; and 3: Enhance infrastructure to boost the capital market’ competitive capabilities at international level amidst ever-changing environment and technology disruption.
SET Chairman Chaiyawat Wibulswasdi stated that developing the capital market to benefit all groups and to grow side by side with the economic growth, the society and country are the SET’s core principle, while focusing firmly on being the role model for sustainable development with innovations, in accordance with our “Towards Sustainable Growth with Innovation” strategy (2018-2020). Specifically, the 2018 plan will focus on the utilization of innovations to achieve sustainability — a challenging factor in the digital era when innovation and technology are playing an increasingly important role in daily’s lives. Besides, the SET plans to further implement the organizational strategic plan to support the latest Capital Market Development Plan to ultimately accelerate the country’s economy.
SET President Kesara Manchusree said that SET has been growing so strongly over the past years as the top market in ASEAN in terms of liquidity and quality of listed companies, while we have continuously educated investors. In the investment environment where more choices and technological advancements are available, this is considered a crucial moment for SET to groom ourselves for the future. In 2018, SET will put an emphasis on the development of the Thai capital market with innovation and new technology to make it grow with quality and sustainability over the long term while being able to compete effectively on the international stage, catering to all demands, serving investors and listed companies more efficiently and securing the leadership in ASEAN. All of these will be achieved through the three key strategies set for 2018, embracing the strengthening of core exchange business with quality, the creation of business opportunities for long-term growth, and the enhancement of infrastructure and capability of the capital market.
1) Strengthen core exchange business with quality
- Encouraging quality domestic and foreign companies to list on SET while offering them intensive program prior to the listing
- Introducing measures by grouping listed firms with deteriorating business conditions in order to alert investors and increase their investment confidence.
- Pushing for any regulatory amendment to get rid of obstacles faced by institutional investors in order to facilitate their investment on equity and derivatives markets
- Collaborating with capital market-related organizations to promote investment culture through the dollar-cost averaging (DCA) technique culture for both stocks and mutual funds by developing tools and channels on the digital platform so as to enhance service efficiency for investors to conveniently access information and long-term investment channels, preparing for Thailand’s aging society
- Supporting the work of intermediary institutions through the development of their potential and the increase of personnel through educational programs for professionals in the capital market, commercial banks and insurance industry.
- Continuously strengthening the capital market among foreign investors in the form of digital roadshows
- Boosting liquidity of existing products while adding new equity and derivatives products to the market
- Developing the Thai capital market to be more recognized on the international stage by hosting the Association of Futures Market (AFM) conference
In 2018, SET aims to boost market cap to THB 550 billion or approx. USD 16.67 billion (through listed companies’ capital increase and IPOs) and to increase the number of listed companies that will be included in such internationally-recognized indices as MSCI and DJSI, as well as to enhance the efficiency of the regulatory process for listed companies, by the grouping of listed firms with deteriorating business conditions in order to alert investors and increase their investment confidence, to be completed in Q2/2018.
2) Create business opportunities for long-term growth
- Introducing new business opportunities to startups and SMEs via the LiVE platform to create awareness among investors while by equipping these firms with financial knowledge
- Setting up the Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) investing in both local and overseas startups and SMEs
- Acting as a regional source of funding through the G2G arrangements with the public sector in order to help connect fund-raising and investment in CLMV countries through the Thai capital market. This can be successfully carried out through the feasibility studies for the development of post-trade processing system and the support for Thai and foreign investors to make investment in CLMV via the Thai capital market
The goal for 2018 is to have 100 startups and SMEs registered on the LiVE platform with investment value of over THB 100 million, while developing an application to create an information center for the renewal of professional licensing, as well as promoting the Thai capital market products in CLMV.
3) Enhance infrastructure & capability
- Preparing for the implementation of T+2 settlement cycle from March 2, 2018 onwards.
- Extending of payment and settlement service of the Fund Connext platform to enable investors to invest in a variety of mutual funds conveniently and fast.
- Developing FinNet as the intermediary of settlement in the capital market in order to enhance the efficiency and for greater convenience.
- Preparing for the Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) with collaboration from the Securities and Exchange Commission while working on efficiency enhancement of the risk management in accordance with the COSO new framework
- Boosting the efficiency of the IT system to meet international standards by working with all alliances to apply the Blockchain technology to improve service efficiency for investors and listed companies
- Developing the potential of personnel of SET and the capital market to grow together while instilling organization-wide culture of innovation and expanding it to capital market stakeholders
For 2018, SET aims to offer the IT security standards (ISO 27001) to cover main systems within three years and to get ready for the introduction of the T+2 settlement cycle on March 2, while expanding the FundConnext customer base to include 30 other asset management companies and selling agents, as well as to launch the FinNet service with the intra-bank payment system on February 12.
Summary of key developments and achievements in 2017
SET continues to stand out in the region, both qualitatively and quantitatively.
Qualitative
- 33 Thai listed companies have been selected as components of the MSCI Standard Index, with the addition of Thailand’s listed-companies noted as the highest in ASEAN for five consecutive years.
- 17 Thai-listed companies selected as components of the 2017 Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) — the highest number in ASEAN.
- SET ranked 10th out of 55 global stock exchanges for the sustainability disclosure reports of Thai listed companies, according to the annual research report "Measuring Sustainability Disclosure: Ranking the World's Stock Exchanges" in 2017 by Corporate Knights and AVIVA.
- Eight Thai-listed companies were awarded 11 IR Magazine Awards for recognition of their investor relations programs in 2017, the most number of award-winning listed companies in ASEAN region for the second consecutive year.
- SET received the Best Sustainable Securities Exchange Southeast Asia Emerging Markets 2017 award by London-based Capital Finance International (CFI.co) magazine.
- SET was named the second runner-up in the Green Office category from ASEAN Energy Awards 2017 and won the outstanding Green Office Award (Gold Level) by the 2017 Green Office project, as well as the outstanding Energy Conservation award under New and Existing Building category from Thailand Energy Awards 2017.
Quantitative
- The SET Index ended 2017 at 1,753.71 points, up 210.77 points or 13.66 percent from the end of 2016.
- The combined market cap of the SET and mai recorded at THB 17.92 trillion (approx. USD 543 billion) at the end of 2017, up 15.62 percent from the end of 2016.
- SET’s liquidity has ranked number-one in ASEAN since 2012 with an average daily trading value of THB 50.11 billion.
- The combined market value of new IPOs was the highest in ASEAN-5, at THB 426.35 billion.
- Listed companies’ capital increase (from secondary offering) totaled THB 215.8 billion (US$6.28 billion).
- The derivatives average daily trading volume totaled 323,732 contracts.
The combined number of new accounts on equity and the derivatives markets totaled 148,976 accounts.