Mute growth of online stock market accounts seen in 2022

DATA from the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) showed muted growth in online stock market accounts in 2022 compared to previous years.

While the number of online accounts rose only by 8 percent last year to 1.25 million, the average value per online transaction rose by 33 percent to P46,236.40 from P34,701.80 in 2021.

While close to a hundred thousand online accounts were added last year, its non-online counterpart recorded a decrease of 7,156 accounts to 453,827. Given this, the total stock market accounts registered in 2022 was at 1.71 million, up by 5 percent from the previous 1.62 million accounts.

“The growth in accounts may have been subdued in 2022 but I expect an uptick in numbers again with the foray of new stock brokerage firms in the online trading space and the upcoming rollout of stock investing features in finance apps,” PSE president and CEO Ramon S. Monzon said.

“The total number of stock market accounts was also affected by the clean-up of dormant accounts done by the trading participants,” Monzon added.

The cleanup of inactive accounts was done in compliance with Republic Act 9160 or the Anti-Money Laundering Act.

The accounts were mostly owned by local retail investors as they held a little over 98 percent of the total stock market accounts. Institutional investors and foreign investors owned 1.9 percent and 1.7 percent of the total stock market accounts, respectively.

The PSE’s Stock Market Investor Profile showed a surge in accounts owned by investors in the 30 to 44 age range. About half of the retail accounts were held by investors in the 30-to-44 age group from a 34-percent share in 2021. The 45-year-old to 59-year-old investors comprised 20 percent of accounts, followed by the 18 to 29 year olds at 18 percent and investors aged 60 and above at 10 percent. The ownership by age of online accounts mirrored that of total retail accounts with the 30-to-44 age group taking up the largest share at 55.7 percent of online accounts, the PSE said.

Investors with an annual income of less than P500,000.00 annually made up 53 percent of retail accounts and 73 percent of online retail accounts. Those who earn an annual income of P500,000 to P1 million had a 25-percent and 13-percent share in retail accounts and online retail accounts, respectively.

In terms of location, Metro Manila continued to have the biggest number of retail investors at 81 percent, trailed by Luzon 10 percent, the Visayas at more than 3 percent and Mindanao at 2.5 percent. Investors based overseas accounted for 1.7 percent of retail investors. Foreign nationals with investments in the local market were mostly Chinese, American, Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese, the PSE said.