Online accessibility boosts stock market accounts in 2024

MANILA, Philippines — A surge in online accounts has boosted the number of stock market accounts in the Philippine Stock Exchange to its highest level last year.

The PSE said stock market accounts reached 2.86 million in 2024, 50.1 percent higher than the 1.91 million the previous year.

The significant increase was attributed to a 62-percent rise in online accounts to 2.47 million from 1.53 million in 2023.

PSE president and CEO Ramon Monzon said the 50 percent jump in number of accounts in 2024 was the highest the exchange has recorded since its started tracking the investor count and profile in 2008.

“This substantial growth was made possible by the enabling of digital platforms to connect to PSE’s trading engine, thereby facilitating the trading by investors in the market. PSE is committed to being true to its advocacy of promoting financial inclusion,” Monzon said.

Of the total account owners, 98.9 percent were comprised of retail investors, while institutional investors made up the remaining 1.1 percent.

The PSE said that 99 percent of accounts were owned by local investors and the rest were held by foreign investors.

The average value of online trades saw a rise of 7.9 percent to P50,746.82.

Its non-online counterpart likewise improved by 4.5 percent to an average of P99,823.86 per transaction.

With a younger and more geographically diverse investor base, Monzon said that the exchange continues to see the impact of partnerships between PSE-accredited trading participants and digital platforms.

Based on the retail investor profile, the 30 to 44 age range had the largest share in total and online accounts, cornering 48.8 percent of total accounts in 2024 from the previous year’s 45.6 percent and 51.6 percent of online accounts from 49 percent in 2023.

The PSE said the second biggest age group came from those aged between 18 and 29 years old, having 26.5 percent of total accounts from 19.5 percent in 2023 and 28.4 percent of online accounts from 21.5 percent the previous year.

“More than the numbers, what is important is that retail investors are equipped with investment know-how to avoid investing pitfalls. We address this need for investor education through our various investing literacy initiatives. We also actively work with trading participants and government and private entities to spread the word about personal finance and stock market investing,” Monzon said.

While growth in retail accounts has been remarkable, Monzon said that the real challenge is getting retail investors to participate more actively in the market as they only contribute 16 percent to total value turnover.

“We are optimistic that the upcoming reduction in stock transaction tax (STT) to 0.1 percent from 0.6 percent, along with the various investor education programs and upcoming pipeline of products of the exchange, will encourage greater investor activity for the remainder of 2025,” he said.

The easing of STT is among the salient provisions in Republic Act 12214 or the Capital Markets Efficiency Promotion Act, which was recently signed into law.