LOCAL retail and institutional investors dominated stock market trading in January, marking the eight straight months that foreigners were left behind, the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) said.
PSE President and Chief Executive Officer Ramon S. Monzon said in a statement that local investors have accounted for 75.3% of the market’s value turnover in January, with the remaining 24.7% going to foreign participants.
The PSE said local investor participation in January is the highest recorded on a monthly basis since March 2010, which was at 76.2%.
“This is the eighth consecutive month that locals outpaced foreign investors in terms of value traded in the stock market. Trading activity of foreign funds may have abated, but liquidity in the stock market has not deteriorated,” Mr. Monzon said.
For January 2021, the market’s daily average value turnover amounted to P11.04 billion, against P7.35 billion as of end-2020 and P6.13 billion at the end of January last year.
“Daily average value turnover is up 50.3% year to date and 82.4% year on year,” Mr. Monzon said.
Further, the PSE said the volume turnover of the local market reached 1.43 trillion in January while value turnover for the month amounted to P220.85 billion. For the month, the PSE said 22.28 billion shares valued at P128.76 billion were traded.
It added that retail participation as of Jan. 22 accounted for 52.2% of the market’s value turnover, while 47.8% came from institutional investors.
“Retail participation started to expand when the pandemic started. In 2020, the retail market was responsible for 26.9% of value traded from 18.2% in 2019,” Mr. Monzon said.
“Initial public offerings (IPO) usually serve as the entry point in the stock market of retail investors. We hope to have a robust IPO pipeline this year, including Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), to further grow the retail market,” he added.
Meanwhile, Mr. Monzon said that despite wishing to see more local and retail investors at the PSE, new investors should learn the basics of the stock market before investing.
He said local small investors can subscribe to IPO shares via the PSE’s Electronic Allocation System web and mobile platforms, adding that the public can attend monthly webinars to increase their trading knowledge. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave