- Total trading volume soared to 69.58 mln contracts in 2016
- Daily average volume up 43 pct year-on-year to 285,189 contracts
- Stock Futures and SET50 Futures as key drivers
- Trading accounts reaching 129,284, up 15,709 from a year ago
Thailand Futures Exchange PCL (TFEX)’s 2016 derivatives trading volume surged to 69.58 million contracts, or an average of 285,189 contracts per day, a 43 percent rise from a year earlier, underpinned by the increasing transactions of Stock Futures and SET50 Futures. For 2017, TFEX will continue to boost liquidity, expand investor base, promote the use of stocks as collateral, and develop new decision supporting tools and utilize digital marketing and education to engage investors.
TFEX Managing Director Rinjai Chakornpipat said, “Given the increase in volatility during the previous year due to events such as Brexit and US presidential election and together with continuing effort on marketing and education activities by TFEX members, trading volume and the number of investors grew significantly from the previous year.”
The investor trading account reached 129,284 accounts, up 15,709 accounts from the previous year. The key products were Stock Futures, contributing 49 percent, SET50 Futures, 46 percent, and four percent from Gold Futures. The investor breakdown showed retail investors accounting for 53 percent, institutional investors 37 percent, while foreign investors representing 10 percent. The internet trading accounted for 48 percent of the total trading volume. At the end of 2016, the open interest doubled to 1,919,913 contracts from the previous year.
In addition, in 2016, TFEX launched new products called RSS3 Futures and RSS3D Futures, while preparing to add new underlying stocks for Stock Futures and launch TFEX Gold-D in 2017.
“Trading of SET50 Futures and Gold Futures increases during the volatile times of stock and gold prices in order to manage risks and seek better returns. In addition, investors have become more sophisticated and are aware of the benefit of using Stock Futures to enhance portfolio performance. Moreover, market makers have also helped boost market liquidity,” stated Rinjai.
Top three most active houses in terms of total volume are KGI Securities (Thailand) pcl, Phatra Securities pcl and Thanachart Securities pcl, respectively. Top three active agents, in terms of having the highest transactions from investors are KGI Securities (Thailand) pcl, Maybank Kim Eng Securities (Thailand) pcl and KTB Securities (Thailand) Co., Ltd., respectively. Top three most active proprietary traders are Phatra Securities pcl, KGI Securities (Thailand) pcl and RHB Securities (Thailand) pcl. The best performance market makers are Kasikorn Securities pcl for SET50 Options, KGI Securities (Thailand) pcl for Stock Futures, MTS Gold Futures Co., Ltd. for Gold Futures, and Krungthai Bank pcl for USD Futures.
“In 2017, TFEX will continue to strike for growth and boost liquidity for existing products, especially SET50 Options, Stock Futures and RSS3D Futures. TFEX plans to engage more market makers, promoting the use of stocks as collateral as a new service by Thailand Clearing House (TCH) and enhance understanding of investors on existing and new products, specifically, TFEX Gold-D which will be launched in 2017. In this regard, TFEX will develop new decision supporting tools and utilize more digital marketing and promoting to reach and educate investor, responding to investment lifestyle in this digital era. In addition, TFEX will continue to promote its products to potential investors both in Bangkok and upcountry via various marketing activities including simulation and trading competition, along with proactively organizing campaigns through outbound roadshows to attract foreign institutional investors,” added Rinjai.
For more information, please visit www.TFEX.co.th.
