Online trade drives bourse

The number of online accounts grew by 25 percent to 782,118 in 2019 from 625,763 accounts in 2018

Even before the pandemic, the trend towards online trading at the stock market was already evident based on the latest Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. data.

Total stock market accounts at the PSE reached 1.228 million in 2019, 12.7 percent more than the 1.089 accounts a year ago boosted by the growth in online deals.

The annual Stock Market Investor Profile (SMIP) report of the PSE showed that the number of online accounts grew by 25 percent to 782,118 in 2019 from 625,763 accounts in 2018. Online accounts made up for 63.7 percent of the total accounts while the remaining 36.3 percent were investor accounts with traditional stockbrokerage firms.

Online trade dominates

“Online accounts have been the reason for the steady rise in total stock market accounts in the last 10 years. The shift in trading format preference of investors have encouraged stockbrokerage companies that cater to retail investors to start offering online trading services to their clients,” PSE President and CEO Ramon S. Monzon said.

Online accounts have been the reason for the steady rise in total stock market accounts in the last 10 years.

“While the data we have now is from 2019, we expect the online investor population to increase in 2020 mainly due to investors opening online accounts during the community quarantine period and as investors participate in initial public offerings through PSE EASy (Electronic Allocation System),” Monzon added.

Across the board growth

The report cited a 12.9 percent and 6.4 percent increase in the number of retail and institutional accounts to 1,199,565 and 28,473, respectively. Retail investors made up 97.7 percent of total accounts while the remaining 2.3 percent was accounted for by institutional investors. Meantime, local investors comprised 98.4 percent of total stock market accounts, with foreign investors owning the rest.

The gap between the number of male and female investors has further narrowed with the former owning 50.2 percent and the latter 49.8 percent of total retail accounts. In 2018, female investors accounted for 48.4 percent of total market accounts.

Investors who are between 30 to 44 years old had the biggest share in total accounts among four age groups at 45.5 percent. The other age groups had the following share in total accounts: 21.7 percent for 18 to 29 years old, 20.3 percent for 45 to 59 years old, and 12.5 percent for those who are at least 60 years old.