STOCK SPECULATION
SET to keep tabs on 8 brokerages
Amid rising speculation in the bourse, the Stock Exchange of Thailand is keeping an eye on eight brokerage houses with records of wrongdoing on share prices.
Patareeya Benjapolchai, president of the SET, said yesterday that the exchange aimed to focus more on brokerage houses' internal supervision, which will help the SET to run the bourse more easily. "Stock speculation has been on the rise. We would like to focus on brokers to make it easier to trace speculation via brokers," she said. However, Patareeya believes stock speculation is not in itself abnormal, and as such is not a concern for the SET. Some investors prefer speculative stocks, while institutional investors prefer stocks with good fundamentals, she said. If there is abnormal movement of prices and trading volume of any stock, the SET has certain criteria and measures to cope, she added. On Monday, the SET prohibited net settlement and margin loans for trading of Navanakorn, Navanakorn Warrant 1 and RK Media for 30 days after it found their prices and trading volumes had irrationally and significantly moved up. Supakit Jirapraditkul, SET senior vice president, said yesterday that the exchange had identified a group of brokerages representing about 20 per cent of total brokers - some seven or eight firms. These firms have records of breaching SET regulations on stock prices and have been often ordered by the bourse to submit information about their customers' trading activities. "The SET has singled out this group of brokers in order to focus on their behaviour," Supakit said. Supakit said some of these brokers were on a blacklist for having customers preferring stock speculation. In the past, one broker strongly punished by the SET was the now-defunct Yuanta Secu-rities. The SET has also classified another two groups of brokers - those with normal behaviour, and those with very good and transparent behaviour. Sakkarin Ruamrangsri, senior vice president of the SET, said Kuang Pei San Food Products, the producer of Smiling Fish canned products, was likely to be delisted after it had made no progress in rehabilitation. But, Tanayong, MDX, Asia Holdings and Sino-Thai Resources Development are expected to be moved from non-compliant status to normal trading conditions as their rehabilitation has made progress.
Siriporn Chanjindamanee The Nation
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