Retail investors urged to look beyond Singapore
The value of Singapore's stock market is double Thailand's but the inverse is true for its daily trading volume.
Maybank Kim Eng analyst Sorrabhol Virameteekul shared the observation at a weekend investor education event, when retail investors here were urged to look beyond Singapore.
"We see a lot of potential investing in Thailand, especially the domestic play - construction, railways, banking," said Mr Sorrabhol, at a Sunday panel on whether Thailand is a "buy".
Representatives from the construction and consumer industries were on the panel.
Chief executive Phonthong Tharachai of Project Planning Service PCL affirmed: "There are more (infrastructure) projects than Thai engineers can handle at the moment - too many projects."
And panellist Bunlung "Best" Waiyanont, an investor relations manager at seafood product company Thai Union Group, noted on the sidelines of the event that Thailand is "not at the tail-end of the S-curve yet".
"Calling the Thai equities market "very foreign capital-friendly", Mr Bunlung noted that about one-third of Thai Union's shareholders are foreign: "The biggest exposure that Thailand has received so far is from either Singapore or Hong Kong, as South-east Asian investment hubs.
"If that opportunity has been opened to foreign institutional investors for the past decade, why not open it to the retail investors now?"
Held at the Suntec Singapore Convention Centre, Invest Fair 2018 saw more than 8,000 attendees and drew 58 corporate partners, such as brokers, product issuers and listed companies.
The event, which began in 2007, was organised by ShareInvestor - a subsidiary of Singapore Press Holdings - in collaboration with The Business Times.
Invest Fair hosted its first Asean pavilion this year, featuring Maybank Kim Eng and showcasing listed companies from around the region. - THE STRAITS TIMES
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