Afet president Napaporn Kurupasutachai said yesterday the proportion of trading conducted by hedgers had fallen from 80 per cent to 50 per cent, demonstrating that more investors from outside the industries for which the contracts are trading have joined the market.

In developed futures markets, speculators account for 70-80 per cent of trading, Napaporn said.

The rise in speculative trading was due to both domestic and international factors, she said. "Because of the global rubber price, Afet has gradually drawn more attention from investors. Also, in the past few weeks, when the stock market was in the doldrums, Afet's activities seemed to have drawn crowds of traders."

The exchange plans to add contracts for tapioca-chip futures by the third quarter. It already offers contracts for tapioca starch premium grade.

By year-end it will also offer contracts for white shrimp. Earlier, it had planned to offer contracts for black tiger shrimp but scrapped the plan when supply of the product fell.

The exchange will begin offering online trading within the next three months to woo more foreign investors, Napaporn said.

Although the exchange has attracted interest and expanded its scope, Napaporn said there had not been a great increase in the number of new trading accounts at brokerage firms.

She said Afet was looking for ways to get brokers to trade more actively, but conceded it was difficult for them to find new customers because the market's liquidity remained low.

Currently, 500 contracts are traded each day. The exchange is targeting 1,000 contracts a day by year-end.