Foreign brokers corner bulk of stock trades

With total trades down by more than half last year, foreign brokers further edged out their local counterparts at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) as they practically cornered the bulk of stock transactions.

PSE data showed that only one local broker, BPI Securities Corp., made it to the list of the top 10 brokers in 2001, landing eighth with nearly four percent of total trades. In 1999, five local brokers were in the top 10 list while three made the cut in 2000.

Last year, ING Baring Securities slid down from the top post it has held for the past two years as it gave way to Philippine Equity Partners Inc., the new local unit of financial giant Merrill Lynch.

Philippine Equity accounted for 8.14 percent of aggregate trades worth more than P319 billion, which was a 55-percent drop from P715-billion value turnover in 2000. While Philippine Equity is a local company, it is still the exclusive broker of Merrill Lynch for executing trades at the PSE.

Regis Partners Inc. (formerly Deutsche Morgan) was the second leading broker last year with almost eight percent of total trades, followed by UBS Warburg Securities (5.81 percent); J.P. Morgan Securities (5.8 percent); and ING Baring Securities (5.33 percent).

Rounding up the 10 leading brokers were CLSA Philippines, ABN Amro Asia Securities, Indosuez W.I. Carr Securities and HSBC Securities.

Meanwhile, the other local brokers who made it to the top 20 list apart from BPI were UCPB Securities, Abacus Securities, Asiasec Securities and AB Capital Securities.

Last year, a large number of brokers — both foreign and local — opted to suspend operations as thinning trade volume on account of the negative investor sentiment and market conditions weighed down on their activities.

Out of a total of 184 registered brokerage firms, there are now only around 140 brokers in operation, some with little trade to speak of as daily turnover averaged around P300 million, one of the lowest in the world. — Conrado Diaz Jr.