The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) said there are 1.91 million accounts trading company shares listed in the local stock market as of the end of last year, higher by 11.3 percent from 1.71 million accounts the prior year.
The PSE attributed the growth of stock investors account to new accounts opened through the GStocksPH platform, which also pushed the share of online accounts to 80 percent of total.
This developed as the PSE index closed 89.93 points lower to 6,411.41, a 1.38 percent drop while the peso closed at 58.42 to the dollar, down from 57.97 on Tuesday.
The PSE said GStocksPH’s online accounts stood at 1,525,768 as of end-2023, up by 21.2 percent or 266,861 accounts.
“Giving e-wallet holders direct access to the stock market is instrumental in our drive to increase retail investor participation in the market,” said Ramon Monzon, PSE president.
PSE said the number of accounts was muted by the cleanup of dormant accounts done by trading participants in compliance with Republic Act 9160 or the Anti-Money Laundering Act.
Retail investors made up 98.5 percent of total accounts while the remaining 1.5 percent belonged to institutional investors.
Local investors accounted for 98.5 percent of total accounts while the remaining 1.5 percent were foreign investors.
In the online space, retail accounts comprised 99.9 percent of total online accounts. Local investors owned 98.8 percent of the online accounts while foreign online accounts took up the remaining 1.2 percent.
According to the PSE, those earning less than P500,000 had the most number of online and total investors at 76.7 percent and 70.9 percent, respectively.
Investors earning between P500,000 and P1 million saw a decrease in their share to 11.9 percent from 13.6 percent for online accounts and 14.4 percent from 25.6 percent for total accounts,” the PSE said.
The share of the above P1 million earners slipped from 13.6 percent to 11.4 percent for online accounts and from 20.9 percent to 14.7 percent for total accounts,” it added.
Metro Manila-based investors comprised 68.2 percent of total accounts; Luzon accounted for 18.6 percent and Mindanao, 5.5 percent percent.
“The programs that democratize access to the stock market played a role in the investor location data in 2023. Aside from e-wallets serving as access point to stock investing, the Exchange’s programs such as PSE EASy paved the way for investors based outside Metro Manila to invest in the stock market. I hope this growth in non-Metro Manila investors will be sustained over the years so that the geographical aspect of financial inclusion is addressed,” Monzon said.
The PSE said average value per online trade last year went up by 1.8 percent to P47,050.48 from the 2022 average of P46,236.40.
The 2023 average value per trade in terms of total market transactions was at P85,385.54, up by 9.6 percent from P77,926.41, the PSE added.
At the PSE yesterday, the broader All Shares index was down 33 points or 0.95 percent to 3,451.74.
Losers edge gainers 127 to 70 with 40 stocks unchanged. Trading turnover reached P5.41 billion.
The peso opened at 57.07, an intraday high, and hit a low of 58.51. Trading turnover reached $1.4 billion.
The peso has depreciated about 1.5 percent since the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas ‘(BSP) last meeting on May 16, when it signalled it could cut interest rates as early as August.
BSP indicated last week that it will intervene in the foreign exchange market if necessary to stem any volatility.
“We stay cautious… being wary of upside risks given that any Fed easing may be slow as US data may only gradually cool,” Maybank analysts said in a note, adding that the BSP’s dovish tilt is also not helping the peso.
Luis Limlingan, managing director at Regina Capital and Development Corp., said the market succumb to further more profit- taking “as concerns over inflation and cautious statements from policymakers dampened sentiment.”
Most actively traded International Container Terminal Services Inc. was down P9 to P329.60. BDO Unibank Inc. was down P5 to P130.20. SM Investments Corp. was down P1.50 to P130.20. Bank of the Philippine Islands was down P2.20 to P120.80. SM Prime Holdings Inc. was down P0.50 to P26.55. Ayala Land Inc. was down P0.30 to P26.80. Ayala Corp. was up P1 to P615. Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. was down P2.30 to P67. PLDT Inc. was down P10 to P1,400. Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. was up P0.15 to P36.15.
