The number of stock market accounts in the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) surged 50.1 percent to 2.86 million in 2024, compared to the previous year, according to the latest report from the local bourse.
The increase was primarily due to a 62 percent rise in online accounts, which reached 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 chief executive Ramon Monzon in a statement.
“This substantial growth was made possible by enabling digital platforms to connect to PSE’s trading engine, thereby facilitating trading by investors in the market.”
Monzon emphasized the importance of investor education.
“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,” he said.
Retail investors accounted for 98.9 percent of all stock market account holders, while institutional investors made up 1.1 percent. Locally owned accounts comprised 99 percent, with only 1 percent held by foreigners.
The average value of online trades rose to P50,746.82, a 7.9 percent increase from the previous year. Non-online trades also went up by 4.5 percent to P99,823.86 per transaction.
While the growth in accounts is encouraging, Monzon noted that more effort is needed to increase trading activity, as retail investors contribute only 16 percent to the 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,” Monzon said.
Most stock market investors were aged 30 to 44, accounting for 48.8 percent of total accounts. The 18-to-29 age group was the next largest, making up 26.5 percent of total accounts.
In terms of annual income, investors making less than P500,000 a year continued to hold the largest portion of retail accounts. Their share in total accounts rose to 82.4 percent from 70.9 percent, and to 86.2 percent from 76.7 percent for online accounts.
Conversely, investors earning above P1 million saw their share in total accounts decrease to 10.9 percent from 14.7 percent. The share of those earning between P500,000 and P1 million went down to 6.7 percent from 14.4 percent.
