Investment house banks on online service to grow market

CEBU, Philippines - Capital market investment house AB Capital Securities Inc. is capitalizing on the online platform to increase its market base, recognizing that this segment is still largely untapped.

AB Capital Securities Inc. president Bert Santos, in an interview, said that the company, which is now owned by Cebuano firm Vicsal Investment Inc., has invested in providing the online trading portal for the technology-savvy stock market players, as well as to attract more stock market investors across the country.

The Vicsal Investment Inc. recently held an investment forum entitled “Stock Market at Your ‘Fingertips,” at the Marco Polo Plaza Cebu to announce the group’s diversified investment instruments, highlighting the availability of AB Capital Securities Inc.’s entry to the online world.

Santos believes that the introduction of its online service could grow the number of stock market investors, including the young generation.

The company targets the 19 to 29 year olds as the larger part of the untapped market that will use the online portal to enter into the high yielding investment instrument in the capital market.

In Cebu, the company has two satellite offices located in Plaridel Street, and one at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) at the Insular Building in Cebu Business Park.

According to Santos, the stock market brokerage growth nowadays is driven by online trading platform. To keep up with the changing trends, AB Securities has commissioned a third party company to set up its world-at-par online trading platform.

Out of 133 brokerage companies in the Philippines, only very few are offering an online platform. This is one of the advantages that the firm is putting its confidence on to lead in the stock brokerage business in the country.

AB Securities compliant officer Eric Wee said that Cebu is one of the main focus for growth for the company. He said the market for stock trading has matured, and the company’s entry to the Cebu-based Vicsal Group could also boost its presence here.

For as low as P10,000 investment, one can already play the stock market investment game, Wee said. This could also attract more investors including those salary earners, specifically the young professionals.

Although the corporate and institutional customers is also growing, according to Santos, one of the drivers for growth now is the untapped retail market.

Due to the good capital market environment in the Philippines, the volume of investors playing in the stock market in the Philippines grew by 32 percent, although he said PSE has yet to achieve its targeted level which is to convince the six million potential Filipinos who are earning above P30 thousand a month.

Of the 99 million Filipinos, only six million earn at least P30,000 a month. This group is one of the targets of the PSE to participate in the equity market in order to build their wealth.

Currently, there are a total of 505,000 investors in the stock market, about 95 percent of which are Filipinos, while the rest are foreign investors.

In an interview with PSE division head for capital market development division Leo Quinito, he said the country’s good economic standing, should not be downplayed by Filipinos as this development is grounded by the low interest rate regime, record inflation, improving governance, good performance of listed companies, and the influx of foreign investors to the country.

The Philippine stock market is regarded as number three in the world, and top performer in Asia. This is because of its healthy growth path over the years, despite the threat of economic global economic fragility.

In 2011, average daily value turn-over at the exchange reached to an average of P4 billion a day. This year, average value reached P8 billion per day, and it could reach even as high as P16 billion.  (FREEMAN)