The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) reported that retail accounts in 2012 grew by 28,399 accounts or 5.9 percent to 506,761 from 478,362 in 2011. This supports the increase in total investor accounts which expanded by 4.1 percent to 525,850 accounts from 505,054 accounts in 2011. The results came from a poll conducted by the PSE that gathered data from 133 active brokers.

Of the total 525,850 accounts, retail investors accounted for 96.4 percent while the remaining 3.6 percent were classified as institutional accounts. Institutional accounts are those held by corporations while retail accounts are held accounts or accounts not classified as institutional accounts.

"Our growing retail investor base has played a significant role in sustaining the high levels of trading activity in the market. The strength of this segment has been supported in large part by the success of online trading and continuing efforts by the Exchange and our trading participants to educate more Filipinos about the stock market," PSE President and Chief Executive Officer Hans B. Sicat said.

Retail investors have also been more active in the market as shown by the higher number of active retail accounts, which increased by 9.8 percent in 2012 to 163,807 from 149,233 the previous year. Institutional accounts in 2012, however, pulled down the overall growth in investor base as it declined by 7,603 accounts or 28.5 percent to 19,089 from 26,692 in 2011 due to the decrease in number of both local and foreign institutional accounts. Active institutional accounts, likewise, registered a 16.2 percent contraction to 6,957 from 8,302 in 2011.

Meantime, local accounts continued to dominate total investor accounts in the stock market with a 98.5 percent share. The remaining 1.5 percent belonged to foreign accounts.  However, foreign accounts remained more active as compared with their local counterparts in 2012.  Of the total foreign accounts, 43.7 percent were active while only 32.3 percent of total local accounts were considered active.

"Even as total investor accounts have been increasing in the last few years, we want more Filipinos to be able to share in the growth of our listed companies through the stock market. The Exchange is optimistic that by putting out new products and services such as PSETradex and soon, exchange traded funds, we will continue to entice more people to invest and participate in the Philippines¿ remarkable growth story," Mr. Sicat said.

Retail Investor Profile

The PSE study also shows that based on the profile of retail investors in the Philippines, male investors accounted for 57.3 percent of retail investors.

Individuals earning less than P500,000 annually accounted for the biggest share at 39.1 percent of retail investors. Meanwhile, investors who earn more than P1 million every year covered more than one-third of retail investors and the remaining 27.4 percent earn between P500,000 to P1,000,000 per year.

In terms of age, investors aged 30 to 59 accounted for 69.9 percent of total investors. Meanwhile, investors aged 60 and above comprised 18.9 percent of retail investors.

Individuals engaged in the services sector and professionals comprised 29.4 percent and 23.0 percent of retail investors, respectively. Self-employed individuals on the other hand, accounted for 21.5 percent of retail accounts.

Majority of retail investors or 75.4 percent were located in Metro Manila while 15.4 percent of retail investors were based in Luzon (excluding Metro Manila). Local retail investors from Visayas and Mindanao represented a mere 5.5 percent and 2.1 percent of total retail accounts, respectively. Overseas local investors comprised a collective 1.6 percent of local retail accounts.

Of the total foreign retail investors, 36.3 percent were Chinese while investors from other countries[1] and American investors comprised 21.5 percent, and 19.8 percent, respectively. Meanwhile Europeans, Taiwanese, Koreans, Singaporeans and Japanese accounted for 8.7 percent, 4.4 percent, 3.8 percent, 3.4 percent, and 1.6 percent, respectively.

Data from this report was gathered from information provided by the 133 active trading participants (TPs/brokers). The data represent figures as of end‐December 2012.

• In 2012, total accounts registered among all active trading participants rose to 525,850 accounts, up by 4.1% from the previous year’s total of 505,054 accounts.

Figure 1. Total Number of Retail and Institutional Accounts, 2011 and 2012

• Local accounts comprised 98.5% of total accounts at the Exchange, while foreign accounts totaled 8,033 covering 1.5% of total accounts.

Figure 2. Percentage of Local and Foreign Accounts in 2012

• Of the total, 506,761 accounts or 96.4% were considered retail while the remaining 19,089 accounts or 3.6% were classified as institutional accounts. In 2012, retail accounts grew by 5.9% while institutional accounts declined by 28.5%.

Download PSE Stock Market Investor Profile 2012