Published on May 13, 2005

Since the beginning the year, data show institutional investors have off-loaded most shares on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. Their selling pressure came as foreign investors, who had bought shares on the main bourse since August last year, dumped shares in March and April. That sent the SET Index into a tailspin, with it slumping from a year’s peak of 745 points to a year’s low of 655.

When meeting institutional investors, most reporters ask them if they had sold SET-listed shares during that period.

On Wednesday, Visit Tantisunthorn, secretary-general of the Government Pension Fund (GPF), fell victim to reporters.

When asked if he had sold shares, he said uncomfortably: “Yes, we did sell during that time. But we didn’t do it because of the force of the market. We did it following our investment strategy.

“We’ve set up our investment portion as 15 per cent of our total investment to be invested in the stock market. In January, the index was up, so our portfolio was changed.

“Therefore, we had to rebalance our investment portion.

“We sold before the downturn started to take place. We sold stocks while prices were still high. We didn’t sell the stock as the market was going down.”

Whatever, the GPF’s rebalancing strategy saved it from a loss.

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