Business

Retail Investor Participation Up by 6% in 2012

PSEThe Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) reported that retail accounts in 2012 grew by 28,399 accounts or 5.9% to 506,761 from 478,362 in 2011. This supports the increase in total investor accounts which expanded by 4.1% to 525,850 accounts from 505,054 accounts in 2011. The results came from a poll conducted by the PSE that gathered data from 133 active brokers.

Of the total 525,850 accounts, retail investors accounted for 96.4% while the remaining 3.6% were classified as institutional accounts. Institutional accounts are those held by corporations while retail accounts are held accounts or accounts not classified as institutional accounts.

“Our growing retail investor base has played a significant role in sustaining the high levels of trading activity in the market. The strength of this segment has been supported in large part by the success of online trading and continuing efforts by the Exchange and our trading participants to educate more Filipinos about the stock market,” PSE President and Chief Executive Officer Hans B. Sicat said.

Retail investors have also been more active in the market as shown by the higher number of active retail accounts, which increased by 9.8% in 2012 to 163,807 from 149,233 the previous year. Institutional accounts in 2012, however, pulled down the overall growth in investor base as it declined by 7,603 accounts or 28.5% to 19,089 from 26,692 in 2011 due to the decrease in number of both local and foreign institutional accounts. Active institutional accounts, likewise, registered a 16.2% contraction to 6,957 from 8,302 in 2011.

Meantime, local accounts continued to dominate total investor accounts in the stock market with a 98.5% share. The remaining 1.5% belonged to foreign accounts. However, foreign accounts remained more active as compared with their local counterparts in 2012. Of the total foreign accounts, 43.7% were active while only 32.3% of total local accounts were considered active.

“Even as total investor accounts have been increasing in the last few years, we want more Filipinos to be able to share in the growth of our listed companies through the stock market. The Exchange is optimistic that by putting out new products and services such as PSETradex and soon, exchange traded funds, we will continue to entice more people to invest and participate in the Philippines’ remarkable growth story,” Sicat said.

Retail Investor Profile

The PSE study also shows that based on the profile of retail investors in the Philippines, male investors accounted for 57.3% of retail investors.

Individuals earning less than PhP500,000 annually accounted for the biggest share at 39.1% of retail investors. Meanwhile, investors who earn more than PhP1 million every year covered more than one-third of retail investors and the remaining 27.4% earn between PhP500,000 to PhP1,000,000 per year.

In terms of age, investors aged 30 to 59 accounted for 69.9% of total investors. Meanwhile, investors aged 60 and above comprised 18.9% of retail investors.

Individuals engaged in the services sector and professionals comprised 29.4% and 23.0% of retail investors, respectively. Self-employed individuals on the other hand, accounted for 21.5% of retail accounts.

Majority of retail investors or 75.4% were located in Metro Manila while 15.4% of retail investors were based in Luzon (excluding Metro Manila). Local retail investors from Visayas and Mindanao represented a mere 5.5% and 2.1% of total retail accounts, respectively. Overseas local investors comprised a collective 1.6% of local retail accounts.

Of the total foreign retail investors, 36.3% were Chinese while investors from other countries and American investors comprised 21.5%, and 19.8%, respectively. Meanwhile Europeans, Taiwanese, Koreans, Singaporeans and Japanese accounted for 8.7%, 4.4%, 3.8%, 3.4%, and 1.6%, respectively.

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