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Published on April 3, 2008

The FTSE SET Index Large Cap is one of the six benchmark indices in the FTSE SET Index Series, which was made available from yesterday.

According to Patareeya Benjapholchai, the president of  Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), the fund will comprise top companies listed on the SET board ranked by market capitalisation. Constituents will also be subject to free float and liquidity criteria.

Bond Electronic Exchange (BEX) chief executive officer Santi Kiranand said the ETF incorporates the 30 largest market capitalisation stocks in the local market.

Other benchmark indices include the FTSE SET Index Mid Cap consisting of 47 companies within the top 90 per cent of the SET by full market capitalisation but not large enough to be in the Large Cap index.

A small-cap index comprising 72 companies will also be offered, as well as a FTSE SET All-Share Index, featuring 149 companies representing the top 98 per cent of the market capitalisation of the exchange.

FTSE SET Mid and Small Cap Index, a combination of the Mid-Cap and Small-Cap indices, as well as a FTSE SET Fledgling index, comprised of the smallest companies on the exchange, are also included.

The SET has three existing indices - the SET index, the SET 50 Index and the SET100 Index.

The SET Index yesterday closed up 0.29 per cent at 825.71.

The SET50 Index rose 0.11 per cent at 593.84, while FTSE SET Index Large Cap closed up 0.29 per cent at 979.17.

FTSE SET Index Large Cap is different from the SET50 Index in its calculation method.

The SET50 Index features 50 big market cap stocks with at least a 6-month trading record.

The FTSE SET Index Large Cap contains 30 big market cap stock with at least a 20-days trading record.

Stocks in the SET50 must have at least 20 per cent in free float while that of the FTSE SET Index Large Cap must have at least 15 per cent in free float. Both indices are reviewed twice a year.

Santi said the new index series would allow the Thai stock market to be on a par with Malaysia and Singapore, which also have FTSE index series as benchmarks.

Siriporn Chanjindamanee

The Nation