PSE reiterates call for Cebuanos to invest in the capital market

CEBU, Philippines - The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) has intensified its call to the Cebuano market, to invest in the capital market now, while listed companies are making stellar performance and opportunities to make money in the stock market is ripe.

PSE, together with international financial analyst and provider of 24-hour financial news and information—Bloomberg held a one-day seminar on “Investing in the Philippine Equities: Eye on Cebu,” recently to convince Cebuanos to take advantage of the good returns in the equity investments.

In an interview with PSE division head for capital market development division Leo Quinito, he said that the PSE is now on its aggressive stance to educate more Filipinos on the advantage of putting their investments in the equity market.

“The reason why we partner with Bloomberg for Filipinos to be able to know what the foreigners’ view on the Philippines’ equity market,” Quinito said explaining that while foreigners are now putting their investments on the country’s equity market, it is good for Filipinos to seize this opportunity.

He added that the country’s good economic standing, should not be downplayed by Filipinos, as this development is grounded by the low interest rate regime, record inflation, improving governance, good performance of listed companies, and the influx of foreign investors to the country.

PSE reiterates its call to all investors, across the markets, that investing in the stock market is not only for the affluent and those who have money, but also the ordinary earners should take advantage of this high yielding investment instrument.

Due to the good capital market environment in the Philippines, volumes of investors playing in the stock market in the Philippines grew by 32 percent, although he said PSE has yet to achieve its targeted level which is to convince the six million potential Filipinos who are earning above P30 thousand a month.

Of the 99 million Filipinos, only six million earn at least P30,000 a month. This group is one of the targets of the PSE to participate in the equity market, in order to build their wealth. — Ehda M. Dagooc

Currently, there are a total of 505 thousand investors in the stock market, about 95 percent of which are Filipinos, while five percent are foreign investors.

Since, the establishment of the PSE Satellite Office at the Insular Building on Cebu Business Park late last year, Quinito said it has attracted 250 new accounts.

Of the 505 thousand investors in the stock exchange, only about 2,500 accounts are coming from the Cebuano investors.

He said there is a need for Cebuanos to be further educated on the opportunities of investing into stocks. While the affluent market has already taken advantage of this wealth-building opportunity, Quinito said PSE is now looking at the mainstream market to get attracted into putting their hard-earned money in the equity market.

“Cebuanos are very conservative. They want to see something that is tangible. They [Cebuanos] still fearful in taking risks,” Quinito said. However, he added that with the aggressive stance of PSE to promote equity market as a safe and high yielding investment channel, he expressed confidence that equity investments in Cebu will grow in a remarkable performance in the next few months.

The Philippine stock market is regarded as number three in the world, and top performer in Asia. This is because of its healthy growth path over the years, despite the threat of economic global economic fragility.

In 2011, average daily value turn-over at the exchange reached an average of P4 billion a day. This year, average value reached P8 billion per day, and it could reach even as high as P16 billion.