PSE to open marketing office in Cebu

SEEING a huge untapped market in the Visayas and Mindanao region, the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) is set to open a marketing office in Cebu come September and conduct seminars that will help create awareness about opportunities in the stock market.

The PSE’s Cebu office at the Insular Cebu Business Center in the Cebu Business Park had already soft-opened and would be expected to boost awareness and encourage more investors in the region, said Kathleen Therese B. Buenaobra, PSE market education department officer.

Buenaobra said that Cebu had been considered a major growth area for PSE and as a hub with increasing number of investors also setting up offices in the area.

“Much still remains untapped and maybe still unaware of the opportunities in the stock market and we acknowledge the need to do more for education. There is a real need to strengthen our visibility outside Manila,” she said.

She said that out of 90 million Filipinos only 0.05 percent had accounts in the PSE or had invested in the PSE, which would make up only about 600,000 Filipinos.

“Out of that 600,000 only 20 percent or even less are actively participating in the trading,” Buenaobra said.

The Cebu office will also house brokers who will help educate would-be investors about the opportunities in the stock market.

“We will conduct investor profiling, investor campaign and education in the Cebu office and educate people that there are many investment opportunities in the stock market even at the retail levels, which one can buy at a minimum of 10 shares,” she said.

Aside from educating investors, Buenaobra said that the office also aims to educate companies in Cebu which are still not publicly-listed to also get a grasp of what opportunities are there for their company.

At present, there are 249 listed companies under PSE and about 140 to 150 are actively trading, which includes the Aboitiz group — Aboitiz Power, Aboitiz Equity Ventures and the Ayala group subsidiaries — Cebu Holdings Inc. and Cebu Property Ventures Development Corp.

Buenaobra also said the PSE will soon implement longer trading hours to also accommodate investors from other countries which are in different time zones as they expect continued confidence and investment interests in Asian economies which the Philippines is a part of.

“Starting Oct. 1, the trading floor will be open from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. and by January of next year, we will extend it until 3:30 p.m. to encourage more participants from other countries, ” Buenaobra said.

According to their annual report for 2010, PSE index (PSEi) surged at 1,148.48 ending the year at 4,201.14, which is 37.6& higher than 2009.

“Last Nov. 4, 2010, the PSEi closed at a historic high of 4,397.30 points as the market continued to benefit from the country’s economic fundamentals, and the general optimism by foreign investors towards Asian economies.”

The total value turnover for 2010 reached P1.21 trillion, 21.5 percent higher than the P994.1 billion in 2009. The combined market capitalization of listed issues in the PSE rose by 47.1 percent to P8.9 trillion last year, significantly higher than 2009’s P6.0 trillion.

PSE’s total capital raised last year was 45.7 percent higher than in 2009 ending at P84.9 billion compared to only P38.8 billion in 2009 attributed to the the stock rights offerings of First Gen Corp., SM Development Corp. and Bank of the Philippine Islands and from the initial public offerings of Cebu Air Inc., Nickel Asia and IP Converge Data Center Inc.  Reporter Aileen Garcia-Yap