Philippine Stock Exchange, Bonifacio Global City. INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON
Capital-raising at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) ended 2021 at P234.48 billion, the highest level ever seen by the local bourse, thanks to a robust pipeline of real estate investment trust (REIT) and consumer-oriented equity deals.
For the year, a total of eight initial public offerings (IPOs), 11 follow-on offerings, four stock rights offerings and eight private placements had been coursed through the PSE’s platform.
“We are pleased that more companies chose to raise funds through the PSE. Their confidence in the stock market made it possible for us to achieve this record capital-raising number,” Ramon Monzon, president and CEO of PSE, said in a press statement on Friday.
The eight new names that debuted on the stock exchange are the following: AllDay Marts, MREIT Inc., RL Commercial REIT Inc., Filinvest REIT Corp., Monde Nissin Corp., DDMP REIT Inc., Medilines Distributors Inc. and Solar Philippines Nueva Ecija Corp.
The amount of capital raised in the stock market broke the previous high of P228.33 billion last seen in 2012. It likewise doubled from the full-year 2020 PSE capital-raising value of P103.76 billion.
Lackluster performance
This was despite a lackluster performance of the main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) for the year, which ended at 7,122.63 or almost unchanged from the end-2020 level of 7,139.71.
On the last trading day on Friday, the PSEi tumbled by 211.93 points or 2.9 percent due to jitters over the Omicron COVID-19 variant.
PSE will open 2022 with the back-to-back IPO of Haus Talk Inc. and Figaro Coffee Group Inc. The PSE is also hosting its first investment expo on Jan. 29 and Jan. 30, 2022.
“The active participation of local retail investors will likely continue to next year, especially as we expect the upcoming IPOs to attract new investors. While this is a much welcome development, we also hope to see the gradual return of foreign funds to the Philippine stock market,” Monzon added.
Net sellers
Foreign investors were net sellers to the tune of P2.32 billion in 2021. However, this had narrowed from the previous year’s net outflow of P128.57 billion. Foreign investors accounted for 36.1 percent of the trading value turnover.
Daily average value turnover for the year stood at P9 billion, up by 22.5 percent from the previous year’s average of P7.35 billion.
A surge in retail investor participation was also logged in 2021 at 31.1 percent as a share of total turnover, from 18.2 percent in 2019 and 26.9 percent in 2020. INQ