CEBU, Philippines - With the introduction of the Philippine Stock Exchange’s (PSE) mobile application, the local bourse’s target to achieve at least five million active investors in the next few years is no longer that far-fetched.
In an interview with PSE president and chief executive officer (CEO) Hans Sicat, he said that there is a need for the exchange to trail blaze with the development of technology, and that mobile application to access the stock trading, will give investors convenience and cost-efficient participation.
To date, the PSE has registered around 575 thousand active trading investors. The mobile application called PSETradex is seen to stimulate the market and encourage more people to consider the capital market as their primary investment channel.
The PSETradex acts like a facilitator for a technology provider, giving broker-dealers the capability to offer an online platform to their clients at a much lower price compared to what it might cost them if they develop their own online trading solution.
Considering that more people are now accessing the internet through mobile phones, Sicat said the online trading platform is meant to expand the country’s thin domestic investor base using technology that stock brokers can collectively use to trade equities in a totally mobile environment.
In a report, Sicat also announced that PSE is in talks with Maybank ATR Kim Eng Securities to be one of the first brokerage firms to avail of PSETradex.
PSETradex offers a web-based trading management system that allows users to trade shares of stocks, monitor the order status and manage the stock portfolio as well as gather relevant market information through their computers.
In addition, it can provide mobile wireless application for equity trading, which operates on web-based mobile phones. In short, investors who have registered with participating stockbrokers are enabled to trade in a “totally mobile environment.â€
“Having this system in place for the investors will allow them to enter and monitor their orders online. The system is designed to also let investors trade using their mobile phones and tablets,†Sicat said.
In the last five years, Sicat said that the online trading at the PSE grew an average of 42 percent annually.
PSETradex seeks to attract a “new breed†or a new set of clients outside of those already trading under the platforms offered by brokerage houses with such capability. The new platform was also timely launched just when the Philippine sovereign recently bagged its first investment grade rating from global credit watcher Fitch Ratings.
To date, 10 to 15 trading participants or a small minority of 133 active brokerage houses have developed their proprietary online trading platform, such as COL Financial, First Metro Securities, 2TradeAsia.Com, AB Capital Securities and BPI Securities.
For its part, the PSE has engaged the services of Malaysian securities trading solution N2N Connect Berhad for this online trading platform. N2N has been involved in the information, communications and technology industry for more than 25 years. It has expertise in developing innovative solutions for capital market clients. N2N has currently expanded its business to Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, China and Indonesia.
He said PSE has been very active in its penetration in the online trading access, in fact, it has also established its presence in the social networking portals, such as Facebook, Twitter, among others.
Today, the country's capital market registered an average daily trading value of P11.5 billion, a significant jump from P5.4 billion it posted about 18 months ago. /JOB (FREEMAN)