Online stock trading accounts grew by a record pace last year, as more retail players ploughed money into the stock market to tap the potential for faster returns, the Philippine Stock Exchange said in a statement over the weekend.
The PSE, in its annual Stock Market Investor Profile, said online accounts in 2013 grew by 65.3 percent to 129,255.
The PSE explained that the high growth rate of 2013 was due to the small base reported the previous year.
Trading activity from online investors last year rose, with their share to total number of trades in the stock market growing to 29.3 percent in 2013, from 28.2 percent in 2012, the PSE said.
In terms of value traded, online trading turnover went up by 23.9 percent in 2013, representing 6.1 percent of total regular market trades.
The PSE said total accounts, which include traditional broker services, were up by 11.4 percent to 585,562 in 2013.
The PSE also conducted a survey and found that there were still more male than female investors, most of whom were based in Metro Manila.
The survey showed that Chinese retail investors were not swayed by geopolitical tensions between the Philippines and China, and preferred to invest in the Philippine stock market.
Of the total foreign retail investors, 35.7 percent were Chinese while 21.1 percent were Americans.
The PSE data highlighted the growing popularity of the stock market, in particular, among retail investors, which accounted for 96.2 percent of the total. The remainder comprised of institutional investors like banks and insurance companies.
In terms of local and foreign classification, the accounts were 98.5 percent local and 1.5 percent foreign, the PSE said.
On income scale, individuals earning less than P500,000 annually comprised 37.3 percent of total retail investors, while those earning more than P1,000,000 a year accounted for 33.3 percent of the retail investor base.
The PSE data were collated from 14 brokerage houses that took part in the survey.