Thailand
Thailand: Sharp rise in online trading on stock market
Online accounts trading on the Thai stock market nearly doubled last year in line with global trends, due to lower commissions and greater convenience as well as overall increased trading volume following the pandemic.
According to data from the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), there were 11.4 million accounts trading online in 2020, or 34.4% of total market turnover, up from the previous year’s total of 6.82 million accounts or 25.3% of the total market trading volume.
In 2020, the SET recorded total trading value of 16.4 trillion baht, up 27% from 2019, and its average daily turnover was 67.3 billion baht, up 28.3% from the previous year’s daily trade volume of 52.5 billion.
Kiatnakin Phatra Securities (KKPS) was the top broker of 2020 with the highest market share at 10.9%, buoyed by automated trading that helped boost its trade volume.
Maybank Kim Eng ranked second at 6.34%. Finansia Syrus Securities followed at 6.06%, then Kingsford Securities at 5.87% and CGS-CIMB Securities at 5.83%.
KKPS focuses on both domestic and foreign institutional investors, while the others targeted local retail investors.
Maybank mostly emphasises retail trading, however the number of retail investors has declined over the years.
Pattera Dilokrungthirapop, chief executive of DBS Vickers Securities, said internet trading is on the rise, but brokers lose profit from this service because the commission is lower than traditional trading.
The average trading fee for securities trading is currently in the single digits due to high competition among firms.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2048747/sharp-rise-in-online-trading-on-stock-market