New Thai stock market chief vows to restore confidence

The new head of the Stock Exchange of Thailand plans to prioritise restoring investor confidence in a capital market that has been dented by a number of corporate scandals, concerns over illegal short selling and a spell of political turmoil.
Asadej Kongsiri, a former Deloitte executive who took over as the president of SET last month, said the bourse has already taken a number of measures in recent months to address investor concerns, and he will now focus on speedier implementation.
“There are some plans being put in place and I will have to synchronise and integrate them for quick implementation,” he said in his first press conference since taking office. “A key priority is to restore investors’ trust and confidence. I admit that trust and confidence have been affected recently.”
Mr Asadej, 53, faces the challenge of sustaining a revival in trading volume and rally in the stocks in recent weeks in the wake of the appointment of Paetongtarn Shinawatra as prime minister in August. Before the rebound, the index had lost about $190 billion in market value from its 2023 peak amid shrinking turnover.
The SET along with the Securities and Exchange Commission have announced several measures including mandatory registration for high-frequency traders and tighter disclosure norms to curb so-called naked short selling — investors selling shares they do not own or have not borrowed.
Regulators and law enforcement agencies have also stepped up a crackdown on perpetrators of corporate fraud, including at listed companies such as Energy Absolute Plc, Stark Corp and More Return Plc.
The recent recovery in Thai stocks resulted foreign investors buying a net 28.3 billion baht worth of stocks in September, the first monthly inflows since April. That helped propel the SET index to its biggest quarterly gain since the fourth quarter of 2020. Still, portfolio investors are net sellers of 97.3 billion baht ($2.9 billion) worth of Thai shares so far this year.
Mr Asadej said the prospects for Thai stocks appeared good in the fourth quarter given that a stable government is in place and the economy is showing signs of a strong recovery.
Thai investors remain bullish about stocks in the three months through November, according to a survey by the Federation of Thai Capital Market Organizations (Fetco). The Fetco Investor Confidence Index — which measures the market conditions over the next three months — bounced back to a “bullish zone” in August, it said on Sept 9.
Mr Asadej is the first outsider in a decade to helm the Thai exchange. He has a master’s degree in business from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has worked at PTT Plc, the country’s largest energy company, and Finansa Securities.