Stock exchange permanently closes trading floor in Taguig

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) permanently shut down its trading floor for brokers at its headquarters in Taguig City on Friday, marking the end of the traditional way of doing business at the local stock market.

Instead, the operator of the local bourse will shift to floorless trading starting tomorrow, June 27.

PSE president and CEO Ramon Monzon said more than the physical closing of the trading floor, the local bourse’s 64-year history of having a trading floor is also drawing to a close.

While the then Manila Stock Exchange was organized in 1927, the first formal reference to it having a trading floor was in 1958 when the MSE moved to the Filipinas Building in Plaza Moraga, Manila.

The bourse opened its unified trading floor in February 2018 when it moved its headquarters to PSE Tower in Taguig City. Prior to this, the PSE maintained two trading floors – one in Makati City and another in Pasig City.

Monzon said during the move to the PSE Tower, only 85 of 132 active trading participants (TPs) availed of booths and dealer room spaces.

“With the COVID-19 pandemic, these 80 plus TPs experienced offsite trading firsthand when we had to go floorless due to the lockdowns. This clearly demonstrated to the TPs that seamless trading can be done so long as they are connected to the PSE’s trading platform. Finally, when the time came to renew their leases at the trading floor, only 29 of the 85 TPs renewed their leases, making it more practical for everyone to go on a full floorless trading.”

“The use of this trading floor may have been short-lived, but we will repurpose this 695 square meter space to more productive use for our stakeholders,” Monzon said.