Squeezed brokerages seek incentives for smaller investors.

(From The Nation (Thailand))

Byline: The Nation.

Brokerages that are seriously considering closing branches due to the sluggish stock-market sentiment are urging authorities to provide more incentives for small investors.

"The current capital-market problem is not caused by too few products in the market, but rather too few retail investors," ACL Securities president Wiboon Perm-arayawong said late on Wednesday.

"Although the market has tried to solve this problem so far, the increase was from the number of total trading accounts, not active retail investors. Over the past four years, active retail investors have remained unchanged at only …