Wiwan Tharahirunchote, managing director of Kasikorn Asset Management, and Eakachai Chongvisal, head of mutual funds for Tisco Asset Management, agreed that the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio in the Thai market was the lowest in the region and that the Thai market had the capacity for huge growth.

In a seminar during the 6th Money Expo yesterday, Wiwan said Kasikorn Asset Management was confident that the index of the Stock Exchange of Thailand would hit 820 by the end of this year.

"This index prediction is based on the Thai economy, which is still growing well despite the political situation. Also, the figures show that the P/E ratio of the Thai market is below that of other markets in the region," he said.

"Thai investors don't have a problem with when to buy; the only problem is that they don't know when to sell."

Taking this investment behaviour into account, Kasikorn Asset Management is to launch an open-ended equity fund this month and is currently awaiting the Securities and Exchange Commission's approval.

Wiwan said the fund, called K-Strategic Trading Automatic redemption (K-Star), would do the trading, unlike many previous equity funds, in which the fund-managers held the stock rather than traded for profit.

"If the stock is undervalued we'll buy, and we'll sell when it's overvalued. It's not a speculation.

Every transaction will be conducted according to our analysis," Wiwan said.

Eakachai agreed that the Thai bourse had the potential to give investors a much higher return than other markets in the region.

"In the past 12 months, the SET provided around a 14.7-per-cent return while the MSCI and Nikkei provided 23 per cent and 55.9 per cent respectively. With China and India still growing, the Asian market is still attractive to investors," he said.

Eakachai added that according to Tisco Securities' research the telecommunication sector was about to grow around 20 per cent, electronics around 10 per cent, tourism 10-20 per cent and finance 6-9 per cent.

Piyarat Setthasiriphaiboon

The Nation