2023 stock market accounts up 11.3% to 1.9 million

MANILA, Philippines — Stock market accounts rose 11.3 percent to 1.906 million in 2023  from 1.7 million in the previous year, according to the Philippine Stock Exchange’s (PSE) annual Stock Market Investor Profile report.

The growth was mainly due to new accounts opened through the GStocksPH platform, which also pushed the share of online accounts to 80 percent of total stock market accounts. Online accounts stood at 1,525,768 as of end-2023, up 21.2 percent or 266,861 accounts.

“Giving e-wallet holders direct access to the stock market is instrumental in our drive to increase retail investor participation in the market,” said PSE President and CEO Ramon S. Monzon.

“PSE’s partnership with the Department of Migrant Workers to conduct learning sessions on financial literacy and stock investing for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and their families is another initiative that can potentially boost the number of retail investors in the stock market once this program is fully implemented,” Monzon added.

The number of accounts, however, was muted by the cleanup of dormant accounts done by trading participants (TP) in accordance with Republic Act No. 9160 or the Anti-Money Laundering Act.

In terms of classification, retail investors made up 98.5 percent of total accounts while the remaining 1.5 percent belonged to institutional investors.

Local investors made up 98.5 percent of total accounts while the remaining 1.5 percent were foreign investors.

In the online space, retail accounts accounted for 99.9 percent of total online accounts. Local investors owned 98.8 percent of the online accounts while foreign online accounts took up the remaining 1.2 percent.

The average value per online trade was up by 1.8 percent to P47,050.48 from the 2022 average of P46,236.40. Meantime, the 2023 average value per trade in terms of total market transactions was P85,385.54, an increase of 9.6 percent from P77,926.41.

Retail investor profile

Similar to 2022, female investors accounted for 51 percent of online accounts while male investors held the remaining 49 percent in 2023.

In terms of total accounts, however, there were slightly more male investors in 2023 at 50.6 percent from 49.8 percent compared with female investors at 49.4 percent from 50.2 percent.

Investors in the 30 to 44 age range continued to have the biggest share in online and total accounts but their share slightly declined in 2023. They made up 49 percent of online accounts, down from 55.7 percent, and accounted for 45.6 percent of the total accounts from 49.8 percent.

All other age groups showed an increase in their portion of online accounts, from 20.8 percent to 21.5 percent for the 18 to 29-year-old investors, 18.4 percent to 18.6 percent for the 45 to 59-year-olds, and 5 percent to 10.9 percent for the 60 and above age range.

For total accounts, the percentage share of the 18 to 29 group rose to 19.5 percent from 18.7 percent while the share of those 60 and above went up to 14.8 percent from 10.8 percent. The 45 to 59 age range had a slight dip to 20.2 percent from 20.7 percent.

Those earning less than P500,000 had the most number of online and total investors at 76.7 percent and 70.9 percent, respectively. These figures are higher than their 2022 share of 72.9 percent for online accounts and 53.5 percent for total accounts.

Investors earning between P500,000 and P1 million saw a decrease in their share to 11.9 percent from 13.6 percent for online accounts and 14.4 percent from 25.6 percent for total accounts. Meantime, the share of the above P1 million earners slipped from 13.6 percent to 11.4 percent for online accounts and from 20.9 percent to 14.7 percent for total accounts.

Investor location data

The share of Metro Manila-based investors showed a significant reduction to 68 percent from 84.6 percent for online accounts and 68.2 percent from 81.5 percent for total accounts.

Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao registered growth in their proportionate share to total investors. For Luzon, online accounts jumped to 18.7 percent from 8.6 percent and 18.6 percent from 10.7 percent for total accounts. The segment of investors in Visayas rose to 6.5 percent from 2.9 percent for online accounts and 6.6 percent from 3.7 percent for total accounts. The share of online accounts of retail investors in Mindanao increased to 5.8 percent from 2.3 percent while total accounts went up to 5.5 percent from 2.5 percent.

“The programs that democratize access to the stock market played a role in the investor location data in 2023. Aside from e-wallets serving as access point to stock investing, the Exchange’s programs such as PSE EASy paved the way for investors based outside Metro Manila to invest in the stock market. I hope this growth in non-Metro Manila investors will be sustained over the years so that the geographical aspect of financial inclusion is addressed,” Monzon explained.

PSE EASy has registered investors in 80 Philippine provinces.

Overseas accounts dipped to 1 percent of online accounts from 1.7 percent and to 1.1 percent of total accounts from 1.7 percent.

In terms of citizenship, the top three nationalities were Japanese, Chinese, and American. The share of Japanese investors surged to 31.9 percent from 12.6 percent while the share of Chinese and American investors declined to 18.7 percent from 23.9 percent and 11.8 percent from 14.7 percent, respectively.