The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) announced a landmark achievement in investor participation, with the total number of stock market accounts reaching an unprecedented 2.86 million in 2024. This represents a remarkable 50.1 percent increase from 1.91 million accounts in 2023, marking the highest growth recorded since the PSE began tracking investor data in 2008.
The significant expansion was primarily fueled by a 62.0 percent surge in online accounts, which grew from 1.53 million to 2.47 million.
“This 50 percent jump in the number of accounts is the highest we have recorded since we started tracking the investor count and profile in 2008,” said PSE President and CEO Ramon S. Monzon. “This substantial growth was made possible by the enabling of digital platforms to connect to PSE’s trading engine, thereby facilitating the trading by investors in the market. PSE is committed to being true to its advocacy of promoting financial inclusion.”
Mr. Monzon emphasized the PSE’s dedication to investor education, stating, “More than the numbers, what is important is that retail investors are equipped with investment know-how to avoid investing pitfalls. We address this need for investor education through our various investing literacy initiatives. We also actively work with trading participants and government and private entities to spread the word about personal finance and stock market investing.”
The PSE has significantly invested in digital channels to support retail investors, including the PSE Academy website, the Market Education team’s activities, PSE EASy, and PSE EQUIP. A recent update to the PSE EASy mobile app now allows Local Small Investors to subscribe to and pay for initial public offerings and follow-on offerings directly through the app. PSE EQUIP has also introduced a premium subscription model offering access to real-time market data.
Retail investors continue to dominate the market, comprising 98.9 percent of total account owners, while institutional investors accounted for the remaining 1.1 percent. Locally based investors held 99.0 percent of accounts, with foreign investors holding the rest.
The average value of online trades increased by 7.9 percent to Php 50,746.82, while non-online trades also saw a 4.5 percent rise to an average of Php 99,823.86 per transaction.
Despite the impressive growth in retail accounts, Mr. Monzon highlighted the ongoing challenge of encouraging greater retail investor activity, as they currently contribute only 16 percent to total value turnover. “We are optimistic that the upcoming reduction in stock transaction tax (STT) to 0.1 percent from 0.6 percent, along with the various investor education programs and upcoming pipeline of products of the Exchange, will encourage greater investor activity for the remainder of 2025,” Mr. Monzon noted. The easing of STT is a key provision of Republic Act No. 12214, also known as the Capital Markets Efficiency Promotion Act, recently signed into law.
Retail Investor Profile Highlights:
- Gender: Slightly more female investors than male investors for both total (50.7% vs. 49.3%) and online accounts (50.8% vs. 49.2%).
- Age: The 30 to 44 age range holds the largest share in total (48.8%) and online accounts (51.6%), showing a slight uptick from the previous year. The 18 to 29 age group also registered significant growth.
- Income: Investors earning less than Php 500,000.00 annually continue to represent the largest portion of retail accounts, with their share in total accounts rising to 82.4 percent and online accounts to 86.2 percent.
- Location: While Metro Manila’s share of investors slipped, the number of accounts in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao all recorded significant increases, indicating a more geographically diverse investor base.
- Foreign Investors: Japanese, Chinese, and American citizens held the most foreign accounts.
“We continue to see the impact of partnerships between PSE-accredited trading participants and digital platforms as we see a younger and more geographically diverse investor base,” Mr. Monzon concluded.
