PSE posts slight increase in H1 income

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) reported a slight increase in its first half net profit to P106.7 million as against P103.31 million for the same period last year.

Operating income amounted to P205.22 million in the six months to June, up 26 percent from P162.61 million the previous year, mainly because of higher membership fees.

Membership fees rose 14 percent to P4.11 million due to higher trading volume exceeding the transaction fees and processing fees from block sales of last year. Service fees also went up to P46.04 million, more than four times the previous level’s P10.17 million.

The PSE reported an operating income of P110.14 million, up 20.28 percent from P71.04 million.

Operating expenses, on the other hand, increased by 20.28 percent from P91.57 million to P110.14 million, owing to higher compensation and other related staff expenses, membership development expenses, resulting from payments made for golf activities and higher miscellaneous expenses due to donations made to the PSE Foundation of P2 million.

Non-operating income rose five percent to P46.01 million as a result of a more organized investment mix that took advantage of optimum yields.

For January to June this year, only one company, First Generation Corp. of the Lopez family, went public, raising P8.5 billion. Universal Robina Corp. also sought additional listing of shares worth P10.4 billion.

As of end-June this year, the PSE’s total assets stood at P2.05 billion, slightly higher than P1.98 billion as of Dec. 31, 2005. Retained earnings amounted to P164.89 million, up 14.3 percent.