The Philippine Stock Exchange, Inc. (PSE) reported that companies raised a total of P122.46 billion in capital through the bourse during the first half of the year, 18 percent more than the P103.76 billion raised in the entire 2020.

Capital raising activities for the period included two initial public offerings (IPO), two follow-on offerings, two stock rights offerings and three private placements.

“We are pleased that companies continue to tap the equities market for their funding requirements. Capital raising activities at PSE continue to be robust and we remain optimistic that we will be able to hit our targets by yearend,” said PSE President and CEO Ramon S. Monzon.

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He added that, “We will be conducting next month a few IPO marketing events targeted at SMEs to convince them to take advantage of our relaxed listing rules and the pandemic relief rule, which is in effect until next year.”

Trading activity was also higher during the first six months of 2021 with daily average value turnover at P8.96 billion, up by 21.9 percent year-to-date and 35.9 percent year-on-year.

Foreign funds registered a net selling of P77.80 billion in the January to June period.

Meantime, the PSE index (PSEi) closed at 6,901.91 on the last trading day of June, down by 3.3 percent year-to-date. The All Shares index dipped by 0.7 percent.

Among the sectoral indices, the Services, Financials, Industrial, and Mining and Oil sectors posted gains while the Holding Firms and Property sectors both ended lower.

“On May 14, the PSEi slid to its lowest intraday level for the year at 6,080.94 but we have seen the main index recover since, testing the 7,000-mark intraday on June 16,” said Monzon.

He noted that, “For the month of June, the benchmark index gained 4.1 percent month-on-month owing to increased investor confidence as more Filipinos get vaccinated.”

“If government can meet its target of vaccinating up to 70 million people by the end of the year or even get close to said target, the stock market could return to pre-pandemic levels in the near term,” Monzon explained.

The PSE still has a lot of activities lined up in the next six months, including the launch of new thematic indices, data analytics platform, and revamped market education website.

“We will also continue hosting our twice-a-month market education webinars for retail investors, who have been very instrumental in driving the market's development during the pandemic," Monzon said.