Thailand Futures Exchange (TFEX) has expanded by 57.1% since its 2006 inception and the bourse plans to enhance its trading liquidity by offering new derivatives products and extending trading hours for gold and silver futures.
TFEX managing director Rinjai Chakornpipat said the trading volume has increased every year as investors understand more about futures products.
Trading in the TFEX will increase significantly when the stock market experiences high volatility, she said.
Last year's market volatility was 13%, but the ratio dipped to 9% this year, resulting in a lower trading volume of 350,000 contracts per day on average on a year-to-date basis, said Ms Rinjai.
Trading volume in 2018 logged an average of 426,213 contracts per day, putting the TFEX at 26th among the world's futures exchanges.
The exchange has 10 products covering financial products, commodities and agricultural products, and the bourse plans to increase new futures products, with 20 new single-stock futures for a tally of 113 single-stock futures.
The new products will be based on stocks having total market capitalisation of more than 10 billion baht with high liquidity in trading. The 20 new single-stock futures are expected to be launched in June.
The bourse also wants to increase the number of commercial banks for US dollar exchange for USD futures trade.
The TFEX is considering extending trading hours for silver and gold futures by 2-4 hours from the current closing time at midnight.
The bourse will assess this option based on demand from participants and whether the trading platform is ready to support such an extension.
The TFEX plans to increase liquidity for trading of SET50 index options, but such a move needs collaboration with securities firms to increase the number of market makers, she said.
According to the Futures Industry Association, the top futures markets in the world for 2018 were CME Group with 4.85 million contracts, followed by the National Stock Exchange of India with 3.8 million contracts and B3 with 2.6 million contracts.
TFEX registered a total of 104 million contracts last year, up 32.1% year-on-year from 2017.
Trading value was mainly from SET50 index futures, tallying some 80%, with stock futures at 9%, gold futures 8%, and others at 3%.
