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- Total contracts surge to 10 mln in 2011
- Daily average volume up 120 pct year-on-year to 41,145 contracts
- Gold futures and night trading session are key drivers
The Thailand Futures Exchange plc (TFEX), in The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) group, reveals that its 2011 derivatives trading volume surged to 10 million contracts, or an average of 41,145 contracts per day, up 120 percent from a year earlier, supported by rising trading of gold futures and the launch of night trading session.
In 2011, SET 50 Index Futures took the biggest share of trading volume, representing 43 percent of the total, followed by gold futures, accounting for 40 percent, and Single Stock Futures having the 16 percent share.
Comparing with 2010 trading volumes of 4.52 million contracts, or an average of 18,676 contracts per day, TFEX in 2011 showed solid growth of volumes in terms of trading and investors with the valuation of daily average derivatives trading of 23.81 billion baht. The main driver were gold futures trading, which soared three-fold to 3.99 million contracts from 971,423 contracts a year earlier, helped by the leap of gold prices hitting more than USD 1,900 in the third quarter of 2011, said TFEX Managing Director Kesara Manchusree.
Simultaneously, the launch of the night trading session in June for gold, silver and oil futures also built up volume, enabling investors to boost returns and manage risks to cope with situations in the global market, with trading of gold futures in the night session accounting for 30 percent of its total trading.
In addition, SET50 Index Futures gained more interest from investors with daily average volume rising 73 percent to 17,690 contracts in 2011, from 10,212 contracts a year ago, in the wake of stock market fluctuation which investors saw the instrument as an investment alternative and a risk diversification. Moreover, the increase of the product lines this year also helped boost the trading, such as the launch of 16 single stock futures in March, silver futures in June and oil futures in October.
As of December 30, 2011, TFEX had 56,452 outstanding contracts, down 28 percent from 77,955 a year earlier, and had 62,883 accounts, up 50 percent from 41,880 accounts in 2010. Domestic Retail investors were the largest group of derivatives players, representing 60 percent of the total trading, foreign investors accounted for 33.6 percent and 6.4 percent came from domestic institutional investors.
The top five most active derivatives brokers are Globlex Securities Co., Ltd. (11.28 percent), Phillip Securities (Thailand) pcl (8.44 percent), Maybank Kim Eng Securities (Thailand) pcl (7.4 percent), MTS Gold Futures Co., Ltd. (5.67 percent), and KGI Securities (Thailand) pcl (5.42 percent), while brokers which traded actively in gold and silver futures are Globlex Securities Co., Ltd. (18.66 percent), MTS Gold Futures Co., Ltd. (14.14 percent), GT Wealth Management Co., Ltd. (10.64 percent), Ausiris Futures Co., Ltd. (10.14 percent) and YLG Bullion & Futures Co., Ltd. (6.9 percent).
