The Philippine Stock Exchange reported that a number of accounts opened with its trading participants jumped by 50.1 percent to 2.86 million last year from 1.91 million in 2023, due to a 62.0 percent surge in online accounts to 2.47 million from 1.53 million.

“This 50 percent jump in number of accounts is the highest we have recorded since we started tracking the investor count and profile in 2008,” said PSE President and CEO Ramon S. Monzon.

He noted that, “This substantial growth was made possible by the enabling of digital platforms to connect to PSE”s trading engine, thereby facilitating the trading by investors in the market. PSE is committed to being true to its advocacy of promoting financial inclusion.”

“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,” Monzon added.

Retail investors comprised 98.9 percent of total account owners, while institutional investors made up the remaining 1.1 percent. Meanwhile, 99.0 percent of accounts were owned by local investors, while foreign investors held the rest.

The average value of online trades went up by 7.9 percent to ₱50,746.82. Its non-online counterpart also rose by 4.5 percent to an average of ₱99,823.86 per transaction.

“While growth in retail accounts has been remarkable, the real challenge is getting retail investors to participate more actively in our market as they only contribute 16 percent to 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 noted.

The easing of STT is among the salient provisions in Republic Act No. 12214 or the Capital Markets Efficiency Promotion Act, which was recently signed into law.

For both total and online accounts, there were slightly more female investors than male investors at 50.7 percent to 49.3 percent and 50.8 percent to 49.2 percent, respectively.

The 30 to 44 age range had the largest share in total and online accounts and recorded a slight uptick in their share from the previous year’s data. They cornered 48.8 percent of total accounts from 45.6 percent and 51.6 percent of online accounts from 49.0 percent in 2023.

The second biggest age group, the 18 to 29 year olds, also registered growth in its number of retail investors. They had 26.5 percent of total accounts from 19.5 percent and 28.4 percent of online accounts from 21.5 percent previously.

The two remaining age groups posted a decline in their retail investor segment. The 45 to 59 age range saw a dip to 17.4 percent from 20.2 percent for total accounts and 16.3 percent from 18.6 percent for online accounts.

The portion of accounts by those aged 60 and above shrunk to 7.3 percent from 14.8 percent in terms of total accounts and to 3.7 percent from 10.9 percent for online accounts.

In terms of annual income, investors making less than ₱500,000.00 a year continued to have the biggest portion of retail accounts. Their share in total accounts rose to 82.4 percent from 70.9 percent and 86.2 percent from 76.7 percent for online accounts.

The two remaining income categories had a reduction in their portion of accounts. Investors earning above ₱1 million saw their total accounts share decrease to 10.9 percent from 14.7 percent and 9.1 percent from 11.4 percent for online accounts.

The share in total accounts of those earning between ₱500,000.00 and ₱1 million dwindled to 6.7 percent from 14.4 percent and 4.7 percent from 11.9 percent for online accounts.

Investors based locally and overseas made up 99.4 percent and 0.6 percent of total accounts and 99.5 percent and 0.5 percent for online accounts, respectively.

The share of Metro Manila-based investors slipped to 49.3 percent from 68.2 percent for total accounts and to 47.3 percent from 68.0 percent for online accounts. Meantime, the number of accounts in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao all recorded an increase.

For Luzon, it rose to 28.4 percent from 18.6 percent for total accounts and to 29.6 percent from 18.7 percent for online accounts. The total accounts of investors in Visayas grew to 10.8 percent from 6.6 percent while online accounts jumped to 11.0 percent from 6.5 percent.

Mindanao-based investors doubled their total and online accounts to 10.9 percent from 5.5 percent and 11.5 percent from 5.8 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, in terms of foreign nationality, Japanese, Chinese, and American citizens had the most number of accounts. Their share to total accounts was at 29.9 percent, 19.8 percent, and 13.0 percent, respectively.

“We continue to see the impact of partnerships between PSE-accredited trading participants and digital platforms as we see a younger and more geographically diverse investor base,” Monzon said.