Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) — Thailand Futures Exchange, the bigger of the country’s two futures bourses, expects trading to slow as the stock market rally reduces the need for hedging.

Trading on the bourse may drop to about 10,000 contracts a day in the second half from 10,678 in the first six months, Kesara Manchusree, the futures exchange’s managing director, said in an interview today. The average daily volume jumped 63 percent in the first half, boosted by record trading of 16,542 contracts a day in June, she said.

“Individual investors prefer to directly invest in equity securities now because they have more confidence in the stock market,” Kesara said. “The demand for hedging instruments surged in the second quarter because they were unsure the rally would be sustainable and the market was very volatile.”