ING Baring still RP’s top broker

ING Baring Securities maintained its position as the most dominant brokerage house with a 9.6 percent share of the total market turnover at the Philippine Stock Exchange last year.

It was an impressive performance for the Anglo-Dutch finance and investment giant which had a 7.65-percent share of the total in 1999. The increase in market share was achieved despite the market’s slump in 2000.

Hobbled by a host of negative factors such as the BW Resources trading scandal, the Mindanao hostage crisis, bomb attacks in the metropolis, a weakening peso and the political uncertainty, the amount of funds that circulated in the local bourse dropped sharply from P1.562 billion in 1999 to only P715.32 million last year.

Foreign brokers, which traditionally corner roughly three-fourths of stock deals in the country, expectedly landed prominently among the top 20 PSE brokers with the top six slots going to them.

Crowding ING Baring at the top were Merrill Lynch Securities in the number two post, Jardine Fleming Exchange at number three, DBS Securities at number four, CLSA Philippines, number five and ABN-Amro Asia Securities, number six. They are all among the biggest names in global finance. These brokers accounted for a combined 31 percent of total turnover last year.

Other leading foreign brokerage houses in the top 20 were Indosuez W.I. Carr, UBS Warburg, HSBC Securities, ATR-Kim Eng Securities and OCBC Securities, which suspended its Philippine operations last year, along with Hong Kong’s Sun Hung Kai Securities, due to the weak market.

Meanwhile, the distinction of being the top local broker last year went to BPI Securities Corp., dislodging Wealth Securities which slipped to 10th place last year from a strong second behind ING Baring the previous year.

The Ayala-controlled securities firm vaulted to the seventh spot from nowhere in 1999’s top 20, tallying 2.87 percent of aggregate deals on huge block sales in parent firm Bank of the Philippine Islands.

Abacus Securities, Regis Partners, Citisecurities, All Asia Securities Management Corp., PCCI Securities Brokers Corp., Solar Securities and Tower Securities rounded up the list of top local brokers last year.