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Investment atmosphere of The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) is likely to be robust due to strong fundamentals of the Thai capital market and listed companies after the first initial public offering (IPO) from Crown Tech Advance pcl (AJD) is listed on SET today.
SET Chairman Sathit Limpongpan said although challenges from both domestic and external factors impact investment conditions, the business sector remained confident in the capital market and the bourse had already welcomed AJD as the first IPO in 2014.
“The SET Index, closing today at 1,318.05 points, has risen 1.5 percent so far this year from 1,298.71 points a year earlier, outperforming Japan (-8.4 percent), other Asian countries (-3.0 percent) and United States indices (-2.3 percent). SET’s securities trading value in January was also the top among ASEAN, despite internal and external uncertainties. In addition, SET’s forward P/E ratio (for the next 12 months) is currently at 12.34 times, which remains attractive compared with other markets in the region. We believe that the volatility should just have short-term impact on investment. Thus, investment decisions should be mainly based on fundamentals and the outlook of the company,” Sathit said.
SET Executive Vice President Chanitr Charnchainarong said that in 2014, the bourse expected to grow its market cap from IPOs by THB 210 billion (USD 6.46 billion) as expected, even though uncertainties had caused some companies to reschedule their debuts. The first SET IPO, AJD, rose 38.4 percent on its first trading day, reflecting the confidence of the fundraiser and investors. Moreover, firms has scheduled their IPO date which are the good sign for the investment mood as there are eight companies waiting to be listed on SET, three firms for the Market for Alternative Investment, as well as one property fund.
