SET to propose extending tax incentives for listed firms

Charamporn Jotikasthira, president of SET, said yesterday that the Finance Ministry has named the secretary-general of the Excise Department to head a working group tasked with gathering all the information about tax privileges for listed companies in both the SET and the Market for Alternative Investments (MAI).

The working group comprises of representatives from the Office of Securities and Exchange Commission, SET and listed companies.

"The extension of tax privileges for listed companies should be completed by the end of this year," said SET's president.

The SET board has also approved the extension of the trading period for gold futures to night time to overlap the trading hours at the London gold market.

The futures market's trading time is between 9.45am-12.30pm and 2.30pm-4.55pm.

The SET board has set aside a budget for trading system development to serve the extended trading time. Moreover, the Thailand Futures Exchange will further discuss with brokerage members to determine the exact period of the extended trading time.

The extended time is expected to increase trading volume of gold futures by 20 per cent.

Charamporn said the SET's board has approved oil futures as a new product to be added to the futures market. Which oil market should be the referent price is under consideration. The oil futures product is expected to trade early next year. The SET Board expected to approve two to four more new futures products as targeted this year.

Meanwhile, OfficeMate yesterday closed at Bt7.2 per share, rising 47 per cent from the IPO price of Bt4.9.

Worawoot Ounjai, managing director of OfficeMate, a leading distributor of office stationary under catalogue and e-commerce system, said yesterday that the company's business model has a fast-growing trend.

He said the company projected its revenue this year would exceed Bt1 billion.