THE Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) reported on Wednesday, May 29, 2024, a significant increase in stock market accounts in 2023, reaching 1,906,019, up 11.3 percent from 1,712,734 accounts in 2022.
It said this growth was primarily driven by e-wallet GCash’s GStocksPH platform, which facilitated the opening of new accounts and increased the share of online accounts to 80 percent of the total.
PSE president and chief executive officer Ramon Monzon attributed this growth to initiatives aimed at increasing retail investor participation, such as providing e-wallet holders direct access to the market and partnering with the Department of Migrant Workers to conduct financial literacy programs for overseas Filipino workers.
Despite a cleanup of dormant accounts, retail investors continued to dominate the market, making up 98.5 percent of total accounts. The remaining 1.5 percent belonged to institutional.
Similarly, local investors made up 98.5 percent of total accounts while the remaining 1.5 percent were foreign investors, according to the PSE.
In the online space, retail accounts comprised 99.9 percent of total online accounts.
Local investors owned 98.8 percent of the online accounts while foreign online accounts took up the remaining 1.2 percent.
The average value per online trade also increased slightly, indicating a growing interest and engagement in stock market investing. / KAL