CLSA opens electronic trading platform in PH

MANILA, Philippines–Asia’s longest-running independent brokerage and investment group CLSA Ltd. has rolled out an electronic trading platform in the Philippines, becoming the first foreign brokerage to obtain an electronic trading certification from the local bourse.

CLSA, which believes the current $280-billion Philippine economy can more than double in the next decade, has linked up to the electronic trading platform offered by the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) to trading participants to “respond to growing demand from institutional clients both onshore and offshore,” the investment house said in a statement from Hong Kong on Friday.

“Investor appetite and interest continue to grow and the need for sophisticated trading tools has increased rapidly across Asia,” CLSA’s global head of trading and execution Andrew Maynard said.

In such a market with low liquidity, relative high price volatility and wide spreads, electronic trading is seen to allow CLSA clients to react faster to real-time, Philippine market updates, which are deemed essential in lower liquidity scenarios.

“I was delighted when informed by the PSE that CLSA was the first foreign broker to complete the PSE’s electronic trading certification process,” he added.

Maynard noted that CLSA’s 9-percent market share in the Philippines, coupled with the crossing technology now available, would enable clients trading electronically to access CLSA’s significant liquidity pool in a market where institutional-sized liquidity can be expensive to attain.

The PSE offers trading participants an Internet-based trading management system called PSETradex, which allows users to trade shares of stock, monitor and manage their stock portfolio and get real-time market information. This platform is an easier and more cost-effective way for trading participants to offer online trading services without having to spend a lot to develop its own infrastructure.

With the Philippines now accessible through electronic trading channel, this brings to 11 the number of Asian markets in which CLSA offers electronic trading.

CLSA has been providing research, sales and trading services since 1986, building its reputation on equity research and economic analysis. It was ranked the “best broker” in Asia for combined research and sales in the past 25 years (1990-2013) at the Asiamoney 25-year Poll-of-Polls announced in May 2014. Institutional Investor’s All-Asia Research Poll has also ranked CLSA as the number one in equity strategy between 2003 and 2012 (except 2006 and 2010).–Doris C. Dumlao