The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) said the Thai capital market has been upgraded to the Advanced Emerging Market status in the FTSE Global Equity Index Series, from Secondary Emerging Market status, effective from March 2012, according to the announcement of FTSE Group, the global index provider.
Charamporn Jotikasthira, SET President, said: “The upgrade will help enhance confidence of investors worldwide as our capital market is marked in the top level group of emerging markets. This will attract more investment from top global funds which use FTSE indices and benchmarks for investment decision.”
“FTSE has considered significant improvements of the Thai capital market in several aspects. We so far have done it well which is the result of the collaboration of the SET, Securities and Exchange Commission, government agencies, and securities companies, especially since the Thai Capital Market Development Plan was established in 2009,” Charamporn said.
Veerathai Santiprabhob, SET Chief Strategy Officer, said: “the upgrade reflects the recognition from foreign institutional investors because FTSE’s committee consists of senior fund managers and experts from top financial institutions. Since Thailand was selected into FTSE’s watch list for possible upgrade to the Advanced Emerging market status in September last year, we, together with other organizations, have put great efforts to enhance the understanding and confidence in Thailand’s capital market’s structure and regulations to both FTSE and foreign fund managers.”
“Thailand meets FTSE’s criteria for market quality assessment which include, among them, fair protection and treatment of minority shareholders; simple registration process for foreign investors; high quality custodian and settlement services; effective derivatives market; active monitoring by formal stock market regulatory authorities; as well as sufficient competition to ensure high quality brokerage services,” Veerathai said.
FTSE Global Equity Index Series divides capital markets into four groups – Developed Market, Advanced Emerging Market, Secondary Emerging Market and Frontier Market. FTSE announces the results of its country classification annual review every September. Thailand now joins nine countries, which are Brazil, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, South Africa, Taiwan and Turkey, in the Advanced Emerging Market category.
About FTSE Group:
FTSE, formed in 1995, is an independent company jointly owned by the Financial Times and the London Stock Exchange. It is the world-leader in the creation and management of over 120,000 equity, bond and alternative asset class indices. With 13 offices in Beijing, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, New York, Madrid, Milan, Mumbai, Paris, San Francisco, Shanghai, Sydney and Tokyo, FTSE group works with partners and clients in 77 countries worldwide
For more information, please contact S-E-T Call Center 0 2229 2222