Cebuanos urged to invest in exchange traded funds

FOR a minimum investment of P5,000, Cebuanos can already participate in the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).

With a revitalized economy driving the stock market index to new highs, now is a good time to invest, said Roberto Juanchito Dispo of First Metro Investment Corp. (FMIC).

Dispo and Roel A. Refran, chief operating officer of the PSE, spoke in a road show at the Marriott Cebu City Hotel.

A new product called exchange traded funds (ETFs) is being offered by the PSE with First Metro’s Asset Management under the FMIC to be the fund manager.

The ETF is a retail-based selling and buying of stocks. An investor doesn’t have to own a company to start participating in the stock market.

The ETFs were approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January this year.

This product is a combination of stock and mutual funds that allows the investors to buy and sell the share directly from the exchange market.

It is both a security and investment instrument that monitors a commodity of assets-like index fund but trades like a normal stock in an exchange.

FMIC initially filed for a P1 billion fund with SEC and has P250 million in paid-up capitalization.

Refran said they were promoting different projects for retail investors in the country especially in Cebu where they’ve seen a lot of economic activity over the last two years.

POTENTIAL

“We see a lot of potential investors here in Cebu especially from the younger generation as they are more open-minded and look at a lot of information available online,” Refran said.

According to Refran, 52 percent of the investors in the stock market last year are foreign investors registering P109.98 billion in investments, which is a 94.6 percent increase from only P56.52 billion in 2011.

Domestic investors are slowly catching up with P61.68 billion or an increase of 84.9 percent from that of 2011.

“All these are positive indicators. We are seeing a lot of interest from local investors especially with the many affordable products that’s being offered now,” said Refran.