Bangkok--Jun 28--SET
The Chairman of the Federation of Thai Capital Market Organizations (FeTCO), Mr. Kongkiat Opaswongkarn Ph.D., talked about feedback received from the over 60 well-known foreign economists, strategists, and stock analysts, as well as that received from fellow FeTCO representatives, Thai securities analysts and members of the Foreign Brokers Club in Thailand who participated in ‘Thailand Focus 2005- Strategists’. This special edition of Thailand Focus 2005 for strategists was held today (June 27). The attendees stated that after they had obtained information from the Thai organizations directly involved with economic and financial policy planning as well as from the Prime Minister himself and his team, they all felt that they had a significantly clearer understanding about the government’s policies that focus on Thailand’s economic restructuring to enhance its competitiveness and its capability to cope with changes in world trade.
Mr. Mark Fuchs, Country Manager- Thailand, Credit Suisse First Boston Securities, one of the participants, said that ‘Thailand Focus 2005- Strategists’ was really important and useful, as it provided a great opportunity for participants to obtain information from the government and related agencies directly. He noted that “The government showed its balanced policy for economic development, which was good and would be positive to the market. What has been perceived today is the certainty of the government’s policies, especially those concerned with mega-project investment. This helps strengthen the confidence of foreign investors. Actually foreign investors have already shown a growing level of confidence in the Thai market, as observed by their net-buy positions recently, plus the assessment of many foreign analysts indicating that the Thai market was still relatively inexpensive.”
Concerning the current account deficit issue, Mr. Adrian Mowat, Regional Strategist, J.P. Morgan Securities, shared his view that “A current account deficit does not always equate to a negative factor. Other economies, such as Australia and the USA, also have current account deficits, but they can still remain some of the best-performing markets. Thus, Thailand’s current account deficit should not really be an issue for investing in the Thai stock market.”
Mr. Kongkiat added that Thailand was among the very first in the region to recover from the long economic crisis, and its investment cycle moved into the recovery stage before other regional markets. Therefore, having deficits was not a surprise.
Thailand Focus 2005- Strategists had a number of prominent foreign economists, strategists, and analysts from 12 brokerage houses in attendance. The brokerage houses included ABN AMRO, Bear Stearns, Citigroup-Solomon Smith Barney, CLSA Securities, Credit Suisse First Boston Securities, DBS Bank Ltd., Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Securities, Macquarie Securities, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and UBS Securities. These companies have approximately 800 clients who are fund managers investing in the Asia-Pacific region with approximately USD1.0 trillion worth of funds under their management.
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