The number of stock market accounts broke past the one million mark based on the 2018 Stock Market Investor Profile report of Philippine Stock Exchange Inc.
Total stock market accounts reached 1,089,443, up 25 percent from 868,810 in 2017. The rise was spurred by a 60.9-percent increase in the number of online accounts to 625,763 this year from 388,864 in the previous year.
“It may have taken some time to breach this one million milestone but as they say better late than never. The advent of online trading has proven to be the catalyst for the rapid growth of stock market investors in the last five years,” said PSE president and chief executive officer Ramon Monzon.
“While one million is a big number in absolute terms, it is just a small percentage of our population. We need to continue and intensify our investment literacy initiatives and target to get an additional million of stock market investors in a shorter period of time,” Monzon added.
Retail investors owned most of the stock market accounts, cornering 97.5 percent, while institutional investors held 2.5 percent. About 98 percent of the total accounts were held by domestic investors while the rest were owned by foreign investors.
The 2018 report provided information on the demographic of Philippine stock market investors. The gap between male and female investors was further reduced with 51.6 percent male investors compared with 48.4 percent female investors. In 2017, there were 54.6 percent and 45.4 percent male and female investors, respectively.
In terms of age, the most notable change was the increase in the percentage share of investors in the 18 to 29 age group. They comprised 21.5 percent of total stock market account holders from just 16.2 percent in 2017. Those in the 30 to 44 age range accounted for 43.1 percent of investors, while the 45 to 59 and 60 and above had a 21.6 percent and 13.9 percent representation, respectively.