Securities Course to help Cebu develop capital market experts

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu is expected to develop a strong pool of capital market experts that could generate a demand, following the recent partnership between the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) and the University of San Carlos (USC) to offer a Certified Securities Specialist Course here in Cebu.

PSE president and chief executive officer (CEO) Hans Sicat said that with the increasing interest of Cebuanos in tapping the capital market as one of the high yielding investment channels, the development should be well complemented, in providing the right types of skills and comprehension as to what is happening in the market.

Sicat said PSE may consider partnering with other universities here in the future, but the expansion of course offering to other universities largely depends on the movement of demand.

He said despite the aggressive effort of PSE to intensify the promotion of stock market investment to the mainstream market, only about .5 percent of the Philippine population has participated in the capital market.

However, on the flipside, PSE has noted a tremendous increase of Filipino investors trading the market through different online portals provided for by the PSE and brokers.

Online accounts last year grew by 12 percent. Aside from its active partnerships with the academe to further develop the capital market in the Philippines, PSE is also tapping the different online channels such social networking, among others.

Off-the-cuff, Sicat said the exchange is hoping to hit five million investors to trade within the exchange in the next few years. Today, there are only 575 thousand investors actively trading the country's capital market.

About 50 percent of these traders are Filipinos, while the other half are foreign stock market investors.

Although the interest is very high among capital market savvy investors, Sicat hopes that ordinary Filipinos, or even the monthly earner individuals will be able to appreciate the stock market as a way of building up their savings.

Today, the country's capital market registered an average daily trading value of P11.5 billion, a significant jump from P5.4 billion it posted about 18 months ago. /JOB (FREEMAN)