Thailand's listed firms to expand investment

BANGKOK, June 1 (TNA) - Most companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) plan to expand their investment later this year, emphasizing on intra-regional investment projects in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). Senior Executive Vice President of the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Pakorn Peetathawatchai told journalists on May 31 that the trend was found in a latest SET survey on the listed firms. However, Pakorn acknowledged that chief executive officers (CEOs) of most of the listed firms said their companies would expand investment in a smaller scale, both for domestic and overseas projects, compared to the previous survey. According to the SET senior executive vice president, most of the listed firms on the Thai bourse eyed to expand their investment to neighboring countries in AEC. Besides, the latest survey found that most of CEOs foresaw better performance of their listed companies in the first half of 2017, about half of whom expected their companies' revenues to grow by more than 6 per cent. The SET senior executive vice president quoted the CEOs of the listed firms as claiming for a need to raise the prices of their goods and services, citing higher production costs, including higher minimum wages since early this year, as well as rising raw materials and energy costs consequently. But the SET senior executive vice president noted that most of the CEOs viewed the liquidity status of their listed firms to remain intact, being unaffected by their rising production costs. (TNA)