Investors in bourse up to near .5M in ’10

Investor accounts in the local bourse neared the half a million mark as it grew 4.8 percent to 498,838 last year from 476,194 accounts a year ago, according to a study conducted by the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).

Retail or individual accounts continued to grab the lion’s share at 95 percent or 474,002 of total accounts while institutional accounts or those held by corporations cornered 5 percent. PSE president Hans Sicat said they remain cognizant of the challenges facing the PSE as not even a percent of the population is represented in the stock market.

In terms of nationality, accounts held by local investors comprised 98.5 percent of total accounts while foreign accounts cornered 1.5 percent. Foreign accounts were however more active than their local counterparts in 2010. Of the total foreign accounts, 36.8 percent were active while only 23.9 percent of total local accounts were considered active. Both local and foreign accounts grew in 2010 by 4.6 percent and 13.6 percent, respectively.

The PSE study also gathered data from a more detailed retail survey conducted in terms of gender, income, age group, profession, location and nationality using information received from 68 to 94 trading participants per category.

In terms of gender, the number of male investors was higher than the number of female investors. On the other hand, a higher percentage of female investors were slightly more active investors than their male counterparts.

Based on annual income of retail investors, the PSE study revealed that individuals earning above P1 million annually comprised 36.7 percent of retail investors. More than one-third of retail investors earn between P500,000 to P1 million a year while the remaining 29.1 percent earn less than P500,000 per year. Also, investors earning more than P1 million annually were the most active traders.

Of the total retail investors, 42.7 percent were between the ages of 45 to 59. Investors in the 30 to 44 years age group followed, accounting for 31.2 percent of retail investors. Investors aged 60 years and above comprised 20.7 percent of retail accounts while those between the ages of 18 to 29 years accounted for a small percentage of 5.4 percent.

Most retail investors were engaged in the services sector and were professionals, which comprised 37.7 percent and 18.6 percent of retail accounts, respectively. Self-employed individuals on the other hand, accounted for 17.2 percent of retail accounts.

Most local retail investors were based in Metro Manila accounting for 78.3 percent while 14.4 percent of retail investors were based in Luzon (excluding Metro Manila). Local retail investors from Visayas and Mindanao represented 4.3 percent and 1.8 percent of total retail accounts, respectively. Overseas local investors comprised a collective 1.2 percent of local retail accounts.

“We hope to launch in July our Cebu office which will bridge the gap in the demographic data cited and hopefully entice more investors from the Visayas and Mindanao regions as well as listed firms to participate in the stock market,” Sicat said.

Meanwhile, of the total foreign retail investors, 39.6 percent were of Chinese descent. Investors from other countries and American investors comprised 20.8 percent, and 19.3 percent, respectively. Europeans, Taiwanese, Singaporeans and Koreans accounted for 7.1 percent, 4.4 percent, 3.9 percent, and 3.6 percent, respectively.

Data on online accounts of investors in 2010 showed that there were a total of 35,559 online accounts. This was a remarkable 25.8 percent growth from the previous year’s total. –Danessa O. Rivera, Daily Tribune