MANILA, Philippines — Online investor accounts grew by a remarkable 48.4 percent in 2011, the highest percentage growth since the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) initiated its survey in 2007.
The surge to 52,750 online accounts last year from 35,559 in 2010 was spurred by the double-digit annual growth in the online accounts of nearly all brokerages with online capabilities.
Of the total online accounts, 99.8 percent or 52,269 were retail online accounts while the remainder represented institutional online accounts. Local accounts comprised 97.4 percent of total online accounts at the PSE while the remaining were foreign online accounts.
“This rapid growth of online trading in the Philippines is reflective of the growing awareness about stock market investing among Filipinos,” PSE president Hans B. Sicat said.
He noted that, “as the market continues to set new record levels in 2012, I think it is safe to say that the 17,000 new online investors were indeed wise to have opened accounts last year.”
As of May 4 year-to-date, the PSE index has expanded by 21.2 percent. It has also breached new closing highs by a total of 19 times during the same period.
Online trades in 2011 cornered 20.7 percent or 1.71 million of total trades, higher than the 16.3 percent share of online trades to total trades in 2010. The number of online trades at 1.71 million also represented an increase of 96.7 percent compared with 868,327 in 2010.
In terms of value turnover, the share of online trading was 6.9 percent or R164.75 billion of total value turnover in the stock market, net of block sales.
Total online transaction value in 2011 at P164.75 billion represented a 90.1 percent increase from P86.67 billion in 2010, which represented only 4.5 percent of total value turnover in 2010.
“We are very much encouraged by these figures particularly in light of our plans to encourage more trading participants to provide online trading services,” Sicat added.
A majority of online investors continue to be active traders with 51,358 online accounts traded at least once during the year, representing 97.4 percent of total online accounts.
Data was also gathered pertaining to the demographics of online investors based on a sample size from four to six online brokers. About half or 49.3 percent of their retail online investors belonged to the 30 to 44 years old bracket while 28.9 percent are 18 to 29 years old.
Nine trading participants provided data on online accounts of investors in 2011. They are: Citiseconline.com, Inc.; BPI Securities Corporation; First Metro Securities Brokerage Corporation; Accord Capital Equities Corporation; F.Yap Securities, Inc.; RCBC Securities, Inc.; AB Capital Securities, Inc.; Wealth Securities, Inc.; and Angping & Associates Securities, Inc.
source: mb.com.ph
