The Philippine stock market expanded by P973 billion in 2016 as total capitalization of listed companies reached P14.44 trillion on the last trading day of the year, up 7.2 percent from P13.47 trillion in 2015 amid volatilities.
The PSE in a statement attributed the growth in the local bourse’s market capitalization to fund raising activities that took place this year.
Total capital raised through the equities market reached P170.12 billion, slightly lower than P184.60 billion in 2015.
“The market experienced a lot of volatilities in 2016 arising from unexpected developments in the global political landscape as well as the interest rate hikes in the US. Despite this, we churned a relatively healthy capital raising number, considering most of these activities happened during the second half of the year. This is a testament to the strength of the local economy,” PSE president and chief executive Hans Sicat said.
Sicat expects fund raising activities in 2017, including IPOs, follow-on offerings, stock rights offerings and private placements to reach P200 billion.
Meanwhile, the PSE is preparing to launch new new products—dollar denominated securities and the listing of Public-Private Partnership companies in 2017—following the approval of rules in late 2016.
“We are pleased to add two new products to the list of capital raising instruments available at the PSE. These products should help facilitate additional listing activity and investor participation in the market,” Sicat added.
The All Shares Index finished the year with a gain of 4.1 percent to 4,156.07, while the Mining and Oil index was the best performing sectoral index after adding 13.7 percent in 2016.
“We believe there will be a healthy pipeline of initial public offerings and other fund raising activities in 2017. We will continue to work with our regulators so we can continue to introduce new products for our market in 2017 as we have successfully done so this year,” said Sicat.
Daily average value turnover for the year stood at P7.81 billion, down from P8.96 billion in 2015.