PSE 1H Net Income Up 34% to PhP570M
Makati—(PHStocks)—The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE: PSE) announced that its net income for the first six months of 2014 rose by 34.0 percent to PhP570.26 million from PhP425.55 in the same period a year ago as listing-related income more than doubled.
Revenues were up by 27.6 percent to PhP909.49 million behind a 109.1 percent surge in listing-related income to PhP575.77 million. From the January to June period, two companies had their initial public offering and one company listed by way of introduction while several listed firms conducted stock rights offerings, private placements and other transactions.
Trading-related income, another revenue component of the Exchange, was down by 17.3 percent to PhP144.92 million due to lower trading volume. The decline however was minimized by a 21.3 percent rise in data feed income and a 61.0 percent growth in subscription fees.
“We are looking forward to more capital raising activities this year as market conditions remain ideal for that purpose. We are also optimistic that trading activity will pick up in the remaining months so we can see average daily turnover closer to the previous year’s level,” PSE President and CEO Hans B. Sicat said.
Total expenses rose 13.5 percent to PhP273.27 million, mainly as a result of higher operational expenses.
“The PSE is half way through its three year strategic plan and we are happy to have put a check mark on many of our deliverables at this time. We have recently inked partnerships with NASDAQ OMX and Deutsche Boerse to make our systems and business models up to speed as we prepare to lay the groundwork for further company growth”, Mr. Sicat added.
The PSE announced the selection of a new trading system in NASDAQ OMX’s X-stream Trading. It also signed a partnership agreement with Deutsche Boerse to explore opportunities in the areas of market data and information service.
Within the first half of 2014, four trading participants offered online trading services to their clients through the Exchange’s online trading platform, PSETradex. This brings the number of brokers using PSETradex to six.The EDGE mobile application was also launched in that period.
The PSE continues to be one of the top performing markets in the region, with the PSEi up almost 20 percent year-to-date, as of August 14, 2014. On August 14, the PSEi also ended above the 7,000 level for the first time this year as it closed at a 14-month high of 7,061.00.