The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) became the third member to connect to the Asean Trading Link on Monday. This is about one month later when Bursa Malaysia and Singapore Exchange (SGX) officially launched the Asean trading link (ATL) on Sept. 18, 2012.
Asean comprises of 10 countries - Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
ASEAN Exchanges consist of seven members, the countries are SGX (Singapore Stock Exchange, Singapore), Bursa (Malaysia Stock Exchange, Malaysia), SET (Stock Exchange of Thailand, Thailand), the JKSE (Jakarta Stock Exchange, Indonesia), the PSE (Philippine Stock Exchange, Philippines), the HOSE (Hochiminh Stock Exchange, Vietnam).
"For the first time ever, with Bursa Malaysia, Singapore Exchange and now The Stock Exchange of Thailand connected, investors now have a single entry-point access to three of the largest equity markets of Asean," said Mr Charamporn Jotikasthira, the president of The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET).
"Together the three markets offer investors easier access to over 2,200 listed companies with a market value of US$1.4 trillion (S$1.7 trillion), which accounts for nearly 70 per cent of the total market capitalization of Asean," he added.
"We're going from one link to three links. Now it's SGX-Bursa, Bursa-Thailand, Thailand-Singapore .... Today, 31 brokers from across Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand - including the five biggest regional brokers - are connected on the Asean Trading Link (ATL). These brokers can now offer investors seamless access across the connected ASEAN markets. In time, this infrastructure could beget more liquidity, benefiting investors and markets of this region.... The value of each becomes so much more." said Mr. Magnus Bocker, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Singapore Exchange.
How the trade is done? For example, to trade Thai shares, Singapore investors who wants to buy Thai shares will place their orders through their local broker. The order goes directly into the Singapore Exchange(SGX) via the Asean Trading Link (ATL) instead of having to be routed to another broker in Thailand.
The ATL would eventually include the bourses of Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines in an effort to raise the profile of Asean as a highly-investable asset class.
The link to the other exchanges are expected to follow in the coming months or early next year.
The ASEAN Exchanges, a collaboration of the seven stock exchanges of ASEAN, also unveiled an website www.aseanexchanges.org - which now provides aggregated Asean market data and analytics in a single location allowing investors to view the performance of the seven ASEAN exchanges individually as well as providing a single, integrated view of the ASEAN market.
"The ASEAN Exchanges website can do what geography cannot - let the world see the ASEAN capital market in a single page." said Hans B Sicat, president and chief executive officer of The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).
A FTSE/Asean Indices Weekly Report will also be made available on the above-mentioned website.
The website is built around 180 Asean blue-chip stocks which represent the 30 most exciting companies of each Asean country as ranked by investability in terms of market capitalization and liquidity.
"ASEAN Exchanges has made significant progress in meeting several key milestones in our effort to promote the integration of the ASEAN capital market....We are focused on delivering on our four implementation pillars which are: driving cross border collaboration; streamlining access to Asean; creating Asean-centric products and implementing targeted promotional initiatives," said Mr. Ito Warsito, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Indonesia Stock Exchange.
