Given its vision “To Make the Capital Market ‘Work’ for Everyone”, SET chairman Chaiwat Viboonsawat said yesterday that as a key economic-growth driver for 2017, the exchange was committed to continuing its development with inclusive growth and promoting the government’s economic development for Thailand 4.0.
SET president Kesara Manchusri said that under its three main inclusive strategies, the exchange would become a fund-raising “cultivator” promoting targeted industries and clusters, list foreign assets for new listings, and allow the government to raise funds on the bourse in order to lessen public debt.
While strengthening listed companies through capital-raising for business expansion, the quality of business operations with good environmental, social and governance practices will be developed and a start-up ecosystem will be established through training and trading-platform development, she explained.
Kesara said listed companies would be encouraged to take part in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) index, while a CLMV Index would also be established.
The SET targets increasing market capitalisation by Bt550 billion next year, with Bt280 billion coming from new listings and Bt270 billion expected to be accounted for by capital increases by listed companies.
About 25 per cent of the new listings are projected to come from targeted industries.
Meanwhile, the cultivator strategy entails creating an investment culture through knowledge improvement and investment promotion via digital platforms, Kesara said.
The exchange also aims to forge an investment savings plan for long-term investment and the ageing society, providing investment knowledge through pension funds, while standing ready to be the central registry for mandatory provident fund schemes, she said.
The SET’s Fund Connext will commence in March, making it more convenient to invest in mutual funds, the bourse president said.
About 110,000 new individual investors are targeted in the Thailand Futures Exchange, she added.
The SET’s last main strategy for 2017 focuses on the excellence of the Thai capital market’s infrastructure and capability to cope with businesses that will have connectivity through standardised digital platforms, including open architecture and cyber-security, Kesara said. The settlement process will also be improved, with planned settlement being shortened to two trading days, or T+2.
“The SET’s main plans for 2017 will play a major part in promoting the government’s Thailand 4.0, strengthening operators, building capital-market infrastructure and preparing for the upcoming ageing society,” Chaiwat said.
The SET Index, as of November 22, had provided the highest yield this year among the Asean-5 countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand – advancing 15 per cent to 1,485.68 points.
The Thai exchange also topped the market-liquidity list for the fifth consecutive year, with an average daily trading turnover of Bt53.44 billion.
The stock exchange was also the champion among its Asean-5 peers for the market capitalisation of initial public offerings so far this year, at Bt136.68 billion, while its listed companies’ fund-raising had climbed by Bt273.47 billion, as of October 30.
The combined market capitalisation of the SET and the Market for Alternative Investment rose 18 per cent from the end of last year, to Bt14.88 trillion.

This year’s new-loan target is Bt170.04 billion. In the quarter, the bank’s outstanding loans increased 5.01 per cent from the end of 2015 to Bt906.04 billion. Its net profit was Bt7.45 billion.
“This year, the bank has developed a greater variety of loan products to meet all groups of customers’ demands, and that |has promoted new loan expansion consistently,” said Chatchai Sirilai, president of GH Bank.
Such products included those in conjunction with the Pracha Rath project for low-income earners and a housing project for the elderly.
After six months of the bank’s financial-education project aiming to help people own houses in the future, about 15,000 persons nationwide had registered for the project as of November 7 and about 1,300 had opened deposit accounts under the project’s conditions.
At the end of the third quarter, the bank’s assets had climbed to Bt988.21 billion and its deposits increased to Bt791.05 billion.
GH Bank’s non-performing loans declined by 0.16 percentage point quarter on quarter to 5.60 per cent of total loans as a result of its new measures for financially troubled customers. Its capital adequacy ratio was 16.21 per cent, compared with the Bank of Thailand’s minimum requirement of 8.50 per cent.
Chatchai said the bank was also going ahead with projects to provide affordable housing loans, while relying more on financial technology.
Such financial technology is seen in the four GH Bank Smart Branches opened this year, GH Bank Smart Receipts, and development of PromptPay services.

The survey conducted on 535 businesses in 12 industries in July found that the auto-parts industry aimed to pay the highest average bonus of 7.9 months, followed by electrical appliances, construction materials, machinery and engineering, and rubber and rubber wood.
Large enterprises are expected to pay more generous bonuses and increase salaries more than small and medium-sized enterprises.
The lowest bonuses will be half a month.
Of the businesses surveyed, 88 per cent will pay bonuses this year. About 84 per cent said they had increased salaries for their employees.
Thavorn Chalassathien, vice chairman of the FTI, said most businesses would increase salaries by 2.5-4 per cent.
Respondents said the pay increases would not be high this year as inflation is quite low.
The survey also found that most businesses would maintain their headcounts, while 46 per cent will need to employ more labour. Targeted workers are mainly from lower Mathayom 6, accounting for 49 per cent, followed by vocational-school graduates (36.8 per cent) and university graduates (13.3 per cent).
According to the Industry Ministry, 6.18 million Thais are employed in the industrial sector, 1.1 million of whom are professional-level. Thailand will need about 277,085 new employees to replace retired workers next year.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Ministry has instructed provincial officers to monitor prices stringently to prevent increases without fair reasons after the increase of minimum wages by Bt5-Bt10 in 69 provinces, which will go into force next year.
Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn said the minimum-wage increases should not drive up prices, as her ministry had found that the average cost of production will increase by only 0.01-1.02 per cent.
Food and beverage prices will increase by only 0.02-0.3 per cent, while other consumer goods will go up by only 0.05-0.44 per cent.

Predee Daochai, president of Kasikornbank and chairman of the Thai Bankers’ Association, said the banks needed to prepare themselves to deal with the uncertain environment.
He said the fact that exports were no longer the key drivers of growth in Thailand’s gross domestic product, the prolonged low-interest-rate environment, and the rapid influx of technologies were among the disruptions to banking industry.
Bank liquidity in 2017 is not expected to change because of the low interest rates, but the market believes the United States will raise its rates.
Even though the Bank of Thailand is expected to sustain the current policy rate, the banking industry might have to adjust its rates to reflect actual costs, he said.
Financial technology has come to the banking industry, to which KBank has adjusted by support-|ing fintech start-ups, hoping to attract other start-ups to use KBank as their platforms, he said.
Last week, Beacon Interface, a start-up KBank had supported, won two prizes at the “Singapore FinTech Festival”. Predee said this was one of the ways KBank was attempting to deal with the new economic landscape.
Chanon Ruengkrittiya, chief executive officer and president |of Ananda Development, said |his company looked at disruption |as an opportunity to change the |company’s mindset.
Many industries are facing a sharing economy, where, for example, Airbnb has become the world’s largest provider of rooms, while Ford is changing from auto manufacturer to drive solution, following to a rising sharing economy. The sharing economy could happen in condominium development, and Ananda Development should adjust to this reality, he said.
Auttapol Rerkpiboon, senior executive vice president for the |Oil Business Unit at PTT, said the company was at a crossroads between internal-combustion and electric vehicles, but timing and technology would determine the speed of EV adoption in Thailand.
Energy demand continues to grow, with imports accounting for half of energy consumption. Thailand’s energy efficiency is still low despite its limited resources, so PTT has changed its mindset from supply side to demand side in response.
He said PTT believed that disruption would come with new platforms, and as a result its petrol stations had been changed into mini community malls to ride the new landscape of the economy and consumer behaviour.

The index increased from 84.8 points in September to 86.5 last month, largely due to higher orders to serve festive-season demand in both the overseas and domestic markets during the year-end period.
The future index for the next three months also improved, from 102.4 points in September to 102.9 last month – its highest level in 11 months.
FTI chairman Chen Namchaisiri attributed the TISI’s rise to higher demand for products for the upcoming festive season, especially from trading partners in China, Japan, Europe and the United States, which he said was driving growth of the manufacturing sector.
However, manufacturers were still concerned about the cost of production, price competitiveness, financial liquidity among SMEs, fluctuating exchange rates, and uncertainty over global economic growth.
Chen said industrial businesses were quite positive about domestic economic expansion, and saw better prospects for export growth after Thai shipments had returned to positive growth territory for two consecutive months.
“The industrial sector is expected to grow continuously late this year and throughout next year, due to expected stronger global and domestic economic expansion,” he added.
The FTI chief also said the government’s measure to provide a welfare subsidy to about 8 million low-income Thais later this year would help stimulate spending and create better sentiment toward domestic economic growth in the current quarter.
Moreover, president-elect Donald Trump’s declared intention to withdraw the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, thus effectively scuppering the pact, should create a positive outcome for Thailand as some foreign investors may as a result reconsider their plans to invest in TPP member countries and opt for the Kingdom instead, he said.
However, in his view, Thailand still needs to develop its competitiveness and standards to meet the new era of global trading.
Meanwhile, the FTI also reported yesterday that demand for cement in Thailand would grow in the current quarter, after contracting 3.3 per cent year on year in September due to the particularly heavy seasonal rains this year.
As the country is now entering the dry season and the government has commenced work on a number of mega-investment projects, demand for cement and other construction materials should increase significantly during the final quarter, the federation predicted.
In addition, the FTI’s Automotive Industry Club reported that Thai vehicle production in the first 10 months was 2.55 per cent higher than in the same period last year, at 1.63 million units.
Surapong Paisitpattanapong, spokesman of the club, said rising production was due to increased output of new pickup models and passenger cars, especially eco-cars for export.
Last month, however, overall auto production decreased 2.59 per cent year on year to 161,105 units, due to lower production of pickups for export.
October production for exports decreased 7.23 per cent year on year to 103,192 units, mainly due to lower shipments to the Middle East, Africa, Central America and Latin America, as some auto-makers have now established a manufacturing presence in those markets, he explained.
Exports in the first 10 months of the year rose 7.37 per cent in value terms to Bt751.52 billion, but fell 1.25 per cent in volume to 1 million units.
SURAPONG ADDED THAT THE UPCOMING “MOTOR EXPO” SHOULD STIMULATE PRODUCTION BY ANOTHER 20,000 UNITS BY THE YEAR’S END.

People who earn Bt30,000 per year or less will get a one-time subsidy of Bt3,000 per person, while those earning Bt30,000 to Bt100,000 per year will get a one-time subsidy of Bt1,500 per person.
Colonel Taksada Sangkhachan, assistant government spokesperson, said about 3.1 million low-income people with annual incomes of Bt30,000 or less had already registered for state welfare as had another 2.3 million people with incomes between Bt30,000 to Bt100,000 per year.
Payments are expected to be made from December 1 to December 30 through the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, the Government Savings Bank and Krungthai Bank accounts.
Low-income people covered by the subsidy programme include 3 million farmers who have not received government aid, according to the Cabinet.

‘Boost to economy’

The money spent by low-income people will also help to stimulate the economy as the third-quarter growth rate of 3.2 per cent was lower than the previous quarter’s 3.5 per cent, the Finance Ministry said.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said the move aimed to help low-income earners who had registered with the government.
In addition, New Year’s gifts including tax allowances for travel expenses and free passage on public buses and trains would be offered, he said.
Prayut also said the financial assistance would prompt spending by consumers, which would affect the overall economy.
The Cabinet also approved the Ministry of Labour’s proposed increase in the minimum daily wage in 69 provinces by a range of Bt5 to Bt10, Prayut said, adding that all ministerial units had been asked to hold seminars in the country during New Year.