The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) has improved derivative warrants (DW) trading by shortening the listing period to 3 days from 15 days; lengthening ticker symbols to include the date of the last trading day for that DW, enabling investors to easily identify the allowed trading period of each set of DWs, and expanding the underlying assets for derivative warrants to include securities listed under the SET100 Index and SET Index series.
Kesara Manchusree, SET Executive Vice President and Head of the Markets Division, said: “DWs have been traded on the Thai bourse for four years, and have gained more popularity. To support further growth, SET has collaborated with the Securities and Exchange Commission and those involved in issuing DWs to improve the efficiency of DW trades. The new ticker will be 12 letters long and will be applicable for DWs issued from July 2, 2013 onwards, while those yet to expire will use their original 8-letter ticker symbols until their maturity. As of May 31, 2013, there have been 424 DWs traded in the Thai market. The trading value of DWs in the first five months of 2013 was at THB 74 billion (USD 2.55 billion), amounting to 1.9 percent of total securities traded in the Thai bourse. This figure is a significant increase from 2009, when only 3 DWs traded, with a trading value equal to 0.02 percent of total security trading value in Thai bourse.
To make DWs more diversified and thus more attractive for investors and issuers, the bourse has also added more underlying assets to the stocks in the SET50 Index which are currently offered. The additions include stocks ranked 51-100 in the SET100 Index which have an average market capitalization during the past 4 quarters of at least THB10 billion (approx. USD 344.82 million). The list of those underlying securities will be revealed on the fifth working day of every quarter via SET’s website, www.set.or.th. The bourse will also add more DWs, with underlying indices including the SET50 Index, SET100 Index, SET High Dividend (SETHD) Index, Industry Group and Sectoral Indices, and ETFs with underlying SET-listed securities.
The Thai bourse, the Securities and Exchange Commission and those involved in the issuance of DWs have improve DW trading by cutting down on procedures and documents. DW listing process will be completed within 3 days, down from the 15 days.
The improvements will benefit both investors and issuers and will be effective in the near future after the related Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announcements,” Kesara added.
In addition, information displays will be upgraded to facilitate searching, including on SET’s websites, www.set.or.th, www.settrade.com and the SETSMART system.
“Thai bourse has been educating investors on DWs to help them make prudent decisions, including working with DW issuers to hold seminars throughout the year. This June 21, SET will join SEC and the Investment Banking Club of the Association of Thai Securities Companies to offer a seminar entitled ‘More Investment Opportunities with Derivative Warrants’, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon at The Stock Exchange of Thailand Building. Interested persons can register online via set website www.set.or.th,” Kesara concluded.
