Thai Shares/stocks

[billyboy]

Walking thru BKK airport the other day and paying the 500 b leaving fee i was thinking of how good it would be to buy some stocks in the Airport Corp and Thai airways stocks.After trying to study how to do this on the intrernet im recieving conflicting info.If i want to invest say 30 000 baht into thai airaways,do i need to go to the trouble of setting up a company etc just to buy thai stocks?

All i want to do is invest in them for one day when i make the perm move.

I cant see why i need to set up a company just to buy shares,im sure if i want to buy shares in amaerica or the UK or other places i dont need to go to the trouble to do this.Can anyone verify i need to set up a co just to buy a few hares in thailand?

[jimbob]

Dunno, but there is a chap who writes about this kind of thing, I have read a few articles and he seems to know his stuff. He writes for a few papers. thaistocks.com I think is his site

[TizMe]

Walking thru BKK airport the other day and paying the 500 b leaving fee i was thinking of how good it would be to buy some stocks in the Airport Corp and Thai airways stocks.After trying to study how to do this on the intrernet im recieving conflicting info.If i want to invest say 30 000 baht into thai airaways,do i need to go to the trouble of setting up a company etc just to buy thai stocks?

All i want to do is invest in them for one day when i make the perm move.

I cant see why i need to set up a company just to buy shares,im sure if i want to buy shares in amaerica or the UK  or other places i dont need to go to the trouble to do this.Can anyone verify i need to set up a co just to buy a few hares in thailand?

It is certainly easier, (and probably safer), for an Ozzie to invest in the Australian Stock market.

A good time to invest in the coming weeks too, after the last couple of days minor corrections.

I wouldn't even think about investing in the Thai stock market.

[cclub75]

Are you serious ? Do you speak about "Thai Airways" ? And you want to buy shares of this company ?

Well... good luck.

Public managed, corruption, over staffed, scandal of fares in london office, politicians who want free tickets for themselfs, mumy, dady, grany, poppy, and the maid, the chauffeur, and of course with MILES. etc etc etc.

And some very bad financial results...

Edited October 7, 2005 by cclub75

[dr_Pat_Pong]

and that's just for starters

[steveromagnino]

To the original poster...

while I don't think that the choice of these particular stocks are necessarily good ones, I have made fairly decent double digit returns on the Thai stock market this year - what I do note about the market here (and I have via my family probably close on 1m invested in the Aussie and NZ exchanges, so I know a little about those markets too) is that:

- the market here is a lot more volatile - 5-10% movements in a day are commonplace. Seen a few 20%+ movements in a day, and the volatility during the day can be all over the place

- lack of liquidity restricts serious investment on a short term basis

- many stocks list only a small proportion of their total shares, so there is less chance of buy outs and corporate raids

- insider trading here just as prevalent, actually even more prevalent than NZ or Australia (both markets where it is pretty rife as well) - difference is here no one gets caught

- far more manipulation of stock prices for some shares than you would EVER see elsewhere and in more blatant ways (majority shareholder has sideline businesses; ramping up prices, that sort of thing)

So... with this in mind, how can you make money? Well, these risks are compensated by some ok returns; you need to know your stocks and do your homework - fundamentals drive earnings and cashflow, and earnings and cashflow are important for dividends, and how funds and the like look at stocks. That's how I see it.

You need to know what is going on with stocks; a share like Thai Airways; well airlines are a dog anyway generally, but in particular Thai Airways suffers from being abused by a lot of politicians; and lack of quality business processes internally. Couple that with a few rotten years for airlines, and I would not say this is necessarily a strong stock with solid earnings. Of course, at the right price even a dog can be worth buying, but not at what it is at now.

I'd say look at some of the shares with dividend yeilds above 5%; strong earnings - not necessarily the glamerous stocks, but what Thailand does well.

You can register with a broker like tiscoetrade.com and buy sell online.

If you are not already investing in shares, I would not say Thailand is the best place to start.

IMHO investing in shares is a risky endeavour; despite all the research, I'd say if you cannot consistently return 10%+ YoY then it is far less effort and energy to just plonk the money in the bank. A few good trades (my past ones were Burns Philp for under 30c; Contact Energy; Power NZ; Fletcher Energy) and that puts the returns well above that to carry over the dogs (Fletcher Forests/Tenon).

[The_Moog]

Yes you can open an account at a local Thai stockbroker. You can buy shares in your name. You do not need a company.

Kim Eng, Seamico are examples of the top local brokers. Both offer online trading.

'Airports of Thailand' (AOT) is the airport operator. They will put up their departure charges from THB 500 to THB 700 when the new airport opens.

[thedude]

the OP should note steveromagnino's points which are well made.

i am a fairly active trader on the SET myself but restrict my trading to 2 types of investment.

1) high cap stocks that are well-traded, have attractive P/Es, and a sound dividend track record, usually in banking, energy, shipping, telecoms. you recognise price patterns after a while and accumulate during market slumps and sell during a rally. i look for around 10-15% gains in these stocks.

2) speculative stocks which, as steve mentioned, due to the rampant 'organised' trading in this market, i get tipped to play from time to time. you sort of have to have some good connections to corporate players and their 'inside' circle of executives and consultants. when one of them goes for a run, he has to create a sort of ripple effect in order to exit with the gains, the trick is to recognise where you are within the ripple. the player will often leak a price target to the market (this is the price that your broker will tell you about), but it is also the price at which he would have fully exited, so a clear-headed assessment of your timing is required, as well as a close eye on the trading volumes. i would average about 30% gains on these transactions. i do not recommend this type of trading unless you have a reliable connection.

if you are investing for long term gains, there are stocks on the SET that may be worth a look, but do not pay attention to the short term movements. if you want to do short term trading for gains, then i'd suggest you start small and learn the ropes for a while before committing further.

[cclub75]

Have you consider funds ? It might be a good way to start, by "diluting" risks. Better to have a basket of stocks, rather than one or 2 lines.

The main banks have funds products.

[thaistocks]

Stocks funds most only consider for investment large cap stocks, which are too often the performance laggards. Such funds have too much capital on hand to be able to invest in smaller, faster growing companies and such firms on the SET and MAI do not trade in the millions of Baht everyday. High daily trading volume is a funds' key requirement and so then their handicap. If you are pro-active better you consider finding a few fast growing companies in desirable industries and go at it for yourself.

[thaistocks]

You were wrong, value investing in smaller Thai stocks has produced close to 40% annual returns since your post. In year 2007 about 30%, on top of the near 18% currency gain vs. the US $.

[Moe]

I have been investing on the SET for a few years and I do not find it particularly "risky" at all. In my experiene the small caps are too vunerable to price volatility and insider trading so I tend to mostly stay away from those although I have the odd punt. Mainly I stick to big blue chips (banks, energy, etc) and, as another posters has pointed out, after awhile you can see the patterns that they tend to range in, so you buy at support and sell at resistence. For safety I like dividend stocks too (providing they are reasonably large cap) in case I have to hold them. Usually 10-15% profit is enough for me too. This can take anything from a month to a year depending on the individual stock.

I also invest on the Australian stock market and I find it more volatile than the SET. Prices are at all time highs and there seems to be a lot of speculative trading going on in resource and mining stocks.

Apart from SCC most stocks on the SET - with possibly the exception of some banking stocks - look a bit too high for me right now particularly energy.

[cali4995]

I had attempted to do some reading on this before, and the impression I got was that foreigners

could only invest on the SET through companies or brokerage houses. Which I took to mean

that an extremely large inital investment was required. Whoops! I see we took a 3 year holiday

on this thread. If you had the time to do some independent research that might be interesting,

I guess I can start with those trading companies listed above, what does it take to open an account?

[Moe]

I had attempted to do some reading on this before, and the impression I got was that foreigners

could only invest on the SET through companies or brokerage houses. Which I took to mean

that an extremely large inital investment was required. Whoops! I see we took a 3 year holiday

on this thread. If you had the time to do some independent research that might be interesting,

I guess I can start with those trading companies listed above, what does it take to open an account?

I invest in my (Thai) wife's name so I don't know exactly what is required for you to set up an account directly in your name. The easiest thing to do would be to call up one of the large brokerages (Kim Eng, Seamico, Kasikorn, Phatra etc) and

they will assign an individual broker to walk you through the requirements.

[thaistocks]

1) Moe is simply wrong, he does not have any good research information on smaller cap value shares, so he sticks with the big cap laggards. His shortcoming. Hard working honest Thailand are often the smaller cap yet leading firms in their respective industries. Their earnings overall grow faster, their dividends are higher and thei p/e ratio's (valuation) lower then their large cap cousins. Problem is neither the press, nor the funds want you to know this. And the brokers want you to trade, trade, trade..not invest.

2) Unlike land here in Thailand, any foreigner can buy and own Thai shares! You can even vote on the annual meeting, if you own the foreign (F) shares. They are registered in your name. No need to send the Thai wife, nor get her involved.

3) Some expats have made it a passion to knock down the merrits to SET/Mai investing, perhaps because they lost money due to bad selection, or maybe because they have another agenda, like selling big commission annuity like products to expats.

4) Here is the rock solid evidence on the performance of smaller cap's vs., large cap.s and its just the averages.

http://www.thaistocks.com/artimages/SMCMar14_06Indices.pdf

[thaistocks]

To open an account you just go with your passport to a local broker, yes Kim Eng is OK and the largest around, but there are many and most all are reputable. It pays to have a bank account in place so you can have your dividends deposited.

A broker in Thailand may not endorse dividend checks, only banks can do this. The key with the broker is to not have yourself talked into a trading account, as trading is always a speculative activity.

If you wire the funds from abroad, make sure you get exact wire instructions from your broker --and then wire to the broker directly. Then you are guaranteed capital repatriation, everytime anywhere. Beware on listening to often nonsense taking by negative foreigners in bars or beaches on this subject, most don't know what they are rambling.

Fact is: foreigners can own Thai shares outright.

Fact is: if done properly you can send your funds back overseas anytime, as long as its in your own name. Yes, including any profits, all tax free.

Fact is: Thai shares trade at a near 30% price discount to other exchanges in the region (not even including Japan) and so represent some of the best investment bargains around.

Its all about buying cheap and selling expensive, select Thai stocks are currently on the bottom valuation, historically. And no, you don't need a large initial amount..most brokers will let you start with a few hundred thousand Baht.

Edited January 12, 2008 by thaistocks

[PCA]

1) Moe is simply wrong, he does not have any good research information on smaller cap value shares, so he sticks with the big cap laggards. His shortcoming. Hard working honest Thailand are often the smaller cap yet leading firms in their respective industries. Their earnings overall grow faster, their dividends are higher and thei p/e ratio's (valuation) lower then their large cap cousins. Problem is neither the press, nor the funds want you to know this. And the brokers want you to trade, trade, trade..not invest.

2) Unlike land here in Thailand, any foreigner can buy and own Thai shares! You can even vote on the annual meeting, if you own the foreign (F) shares. They are registered in your name. No need to send the Thai wife, nor get her involved.

3) Some expats have made it a passion to knock down the merrits to SET/Mai investing, perhaps because they lost money due to bad selection, or maybe because they have another agenda, like selling big commission annuity like products to expats.

4) Here is the rock solid evidence on the performance of smaller cap's vs., large cap.s and its just the averages.

http://www.thaistocks.com/artimages/SMCMar14_06Indices.pdf

Is this not what you are trying to do here at the moment?

[Edonista]

Are you serious ? Do you speak about "Thai Airways" ? And you want to buy shares of this company ?

Well... good luck.

Public managed, corruption, over staffed, scandal of fares in london office, politicians who want free tickets for themselfs, mumy, dady, grany, poppy, and the maid, the chauffeur, and of course with MILES. etc etc etc.

And some very bad financial results...

Really Thai Airways closed each of her 43 years of operation with a profit.

A record really few other company can show I think.

2007 profit was over 6 billion baht, or 3.73 baht per share. That means a P/E of 9 at current price (33 baht) and a P/BV of 0.8 . Dividend yeld is above 5%.

Unless you think all air companies will bankrupt, THAI is a must BUY.