COL Financial Group, Inc. reported a 75.9 percent jump in net income to P 158.3 million in the first quarter of the year despite facing difficulties amid a challenging market environment. In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said its stock brokerage business saw commission revenues decline 23.5 percent to P 127.7 million for the period under review. “However, due to COL’s effective cash management strategy, the company was able to take advantage of rising rates, increasing its incidental income and offsetting its weak core revenues (resulting in higher net income),” said COL. Customer growth and trading activity also remained weak for the quarter, resulting in COL’s market share and PSE ranking to drop to 4.9 percent and 7, respectively. Despite this, customers continued to entrust COL with their investable money, with client assets slightly up over 2 percent to almost P108 billion at the end of March compared to the end of the previous quarter. In addition, the Fund Source business saw its assets under administration hold steady at P4.3 billion amid the weak market conditions, with customers continuing to shift and diversify their fund investments into bond and global income-generating funds. “The macroenvironment continues to remain challenging in 2023, and we are continuously looking for ways to help our customers navigate these kinds of market conditions,” said COL President and CEO Dino Bate. He added that, “Aside from providing better and more timely guidance, we’re committed to bring in better investment options that can help Filipino investors build their wealth across all kinds of market environments.”