Investors' confidence in Thai bourse on the rise

BANGKOK, August 7 (TNA) - The Federation of Thai Capital Market Organizations (FETCO) reports that investors' confidence in the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) has been on the rise, thanks to the government's new mega-infrastructure investment plans. FETCO Chairman Paiboon Narintarangkul told journalists that a FETCO latest survey this month found investors' confidence in the Thai stock market over the next three months stood at the 108.11 level, its increase for the second consecutive month and its stable status for the fourth consecutive month. Paiboon explained that investors who were invited as samples in the latest survey expressed their confidence in the constantly expanding Thai economy and viewed that the Thai economy should grow by about 4-5 per cent year-on-year on average in 2018, with the government's new mega-investment projects becoming a major driving force. The FETCO chairman said if the targeted figures of the national economic growth are met, they would also enhance business performance figures of listed firms on the Thai bourse when the net sale made by foreign investors, to then become capital outflows, has also started declining. However, the FETCO chairman pointed out that international investors expressed their concerns in the latest survey over capital outflows from impacts of the ongoing trade war between the United States and China. The FETCO chairman revealed that most surveyed investors, meanwhile, viewed the SET index should reach 1,803 points by the end of this year, but anticipated that the Bank of Thailand (BOT) should resolve at the upcoming meeting of its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), set on August 8, to maintain its key interest rate at 1.5 per cent. (TNA)