In February, the SET Index started to rise around the middle of the month, when foreign investors became the net buyers on the Thai bourse and political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa turned more violent and pushed global oil prices up drastically. At end-February, the SET Index closed at 987.91 points, up 2.47% from the previous month but still 4.34% lower than at end-2010. The Market for Alternative Investment (mai) Index closed at 263.56 points, or 0.57% lower than in January and a 3.37% fall from end-2010.
Most industry group indices rose when compared with the preceding month, except for the Technology group. The Financial and Resources groups were the only groups with gains that outpaced the SET Index’s rise, with the month-on-month increases of 4.49% and 4.07%, respectively.
Higher securities prices also helped raise SET’s market capitalization, with the end- February figure of THB8.00 trillion (approx. USD263.90 billion) being 2.47% higher than that of end- January. Meanwhile, mai’s market capitalization of mai dropped 5.53% from the previous month to THB51.15 billion (approx. USD1.69 billion) after Demco PCL (with a market cap of THB2.12 billion, or approx. USD70.16 million, at end- February 2011) moved from mai to SET.
Despite the market’s gains, the SET remained the region’s number-one market in terms of dividend yield, which stood at 3.80% as of end-February, similar to the 3.82% yield as at end-January.
In February, combined daily average trading value on SET and mai was worth THB28.12 billion (approx. USD927.27 million), a 21.88% month-on-month decrease but a 97.43% year-on-year increase. Foreign investors were accounted for 25.73% of total trading value, which was the highest in 29 months or since October 2008. Foreign investors were net buyers of THB 8.43 billion (approx. USD278 million) in February. However, from January to February, foreign investors posted a net sell of THB20.24 billion (approx. USD667.59 million).
By sector, the Energy & Utilities Sector was the most popular, accounting for 33.28% of total trade, an increase from 29.28% in January. In February, investors have continued to focus on securities with big market capitalization; the 10 largest stocks in terms of market cap accounted for 45.59% of total trade, up from 42.06% at end-January.
In derivatives, daily average trading volume in February soared to 25,199 contracts, or 79.88% higher than in February 2010 but 5.17% lower than in January 2011. The decrease was due to trade volume of single stock futures that dropped 29.25% from the previous month. However trade volume of SET50 Index futures and 50-baht weight and 10-baht weight gold futures continued to rise. Last month, 10-baht weight gold futures recorded an average daily trade of 3,430 contracts, the highest level since its debut in August 2010.
Capital-raising in February by listed firms through equities was THB23.65 billion (approx. USD762.90 million) due only to seasonal equity offerings and mainly by two firms in the Industrials Group: Indorama Ventures PCL (IVL) and Sahaviriya Steel Industries PCL (SSI), which raised THB17.28 billion (approx. USD569.73 million) and THB6.09 billion (approx. USD201.09 million), respectively.
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