PSE H1 profits soar by 31.8%

MANILA, Philippines - Profits of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) soared by 31.8 percent for the first half of the year, rising from P325.53 million last year to P428.95 million.

The local bourse reported a 30.1 percent rise in its revenues to P789.62 million, 34.9 percent of which came from listing-related income which rose by 29.7 percent to P275.3 million on higher listing fees.

Meanwhile, trading-related income, which accounted for almost half of the total revenues, was pushed by higher trading volume.

PSE said brisk trading activity resulted to a 48.2-percent rise in the service fees of the Securities Clearing Corporation of the Philippines, a wholly owned PSE subsidiary which posted P250.78 million.

The local bourse reported total value turnover growing by 48.2 percent to P1.4 trillion in June this year, improving from June 2012's P947.73 billion. This translates to a P11.51-billion daily value turnover from the P7.64 billion recorded in the same period last year.

"The stock market’s remarkable feat in the first half of 2013 supported the good corporate performance of the PSE. Given the continued strong macroeconomic environment and the impact of the investment grade rating of the country on the real economy, we believe that we can continue to post good corporate numbers through the rest of the year. We remain optimistic about the prospects of more listings in the second half of the year as we surpass the market volatilities we experienced a month ago,” PSE President and Chief Executive Officer Hans Sicat said.

PSE said its total expenses in the first semester grew at a manageable pace of 15 percent to P237.14 million from P206.21 million. 

"Revenue growth continued to outpace spending as shown in the decline of total expense as a percentage of total revenue to 30.0 percent in the first half, better than the 34.0 percent recorded in the same period a year ago," the local bourse added.