In August, 2022, investors across the world weighed in US Federal Reserve (Fed)’s chairman speech at the Jackson Hole Symposium, which obviously signaled that the US central bank’s policy rate hikes would continue until an easing of US inflationary pressure. The US treasury yields both short-term and long-term spiked after his remarks, affecting the foreign exchange rates and asset prices around the globe.
Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Senior Executive Vice President Soraphol Tulayasathien said that despite the uncertainties from central banks’ monetary policy implementation in many countries in the first eight months to August 2022, SET Index was less volatile than other indices of major stock markets, mainly due to Thailand’s continued economic recovery from the tourism sector and domestic consumption. In addition, listed companies delivered solid growth in the first six months, particularly in Q2/2022, with a combined net profit of THB 350 billion (approx. USD 9.52 billion). Moreover, SET Index's historical and forward P/E ratios were still attractive when compared with their averages in the recent past, listed companies had a chance to increase their dividend payout ratios to be in line with their operating performance while commercial banks look set to pay higher dividends after the Bank of Thailand lifted the dividend curbs.
Key highlights for August
- At end-August 2022, SET Index closed at 1,638.93 points, up 4 percent from the previous month, considered higher than the average of indices of other stock exchanges in the region. However, SET Index decreased slightly by 1.1 percent from the end of 2021.
- In the first eight months of 2022, SET Index was propelled by the industries that benefited from the reopening of the country. Services and Resources Industry Groups outperformed SET Index when compared with the end of 2021.
- In August 2022, the average daily trading value of SET and Market for Alternative Investment (mai) dropped 18.8 percent from the same period last year to THB 75.21 billion. For the first eight months of 2022, the daily trading value averaged THB 82.75 billion. In August 2022, foreign investors bought a net THB 57.01 billion, adding their net purchases to THB 170.74 billion in the first eight months of 2022. Moreover, they had the biggest share of trading value for the fifth consecutive month.
- In August 2022, there was a new company listed on SET, namely Thachang Green Energy pcl (TGE); and another one on mai, namely Yong Concrete pcl (YONG) as the Thai bourse’s total fundraising value through initial public offering (IPOs) in 2022 was among the top rankings in Asia.
- The Thai stock exchange's forward P/E ratio at end-August 2022 was 15.7 times, above the Asian stock markets’ average of 12.6 times. The historical P/E ratio stood at 16.7 times, higher than the Asian stock markets’ average of 13.2 times.
- Dividend yield ratio at end-August 2022 was 2.78 percent, below the Asian stock markets’ average of 3 percent.
Derivatives market
- In August 2022, Thailand Futures Exchange (TFEX)’s average daily trading volume recorded 496,575 contracts, an increase of 6.7 percent from the previous month, significantly driven by the increase in trading volume of Single Stock Futures. Markedly, during the first eight months of 2022, TFEX’s average daily trading volume rose 3 percent year-on-year to 548,981 contracts.
