FOREIGN-OWNED brokerages again cornerd the bulk of the stock market’s trading last year, data from the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) showed.
Six of the top nine equity firms by market share were foreigners that had a combined share of almost half.
The stock exchange said topping the list was Deutsche Regis Partners, Inc., which had increased its market share to 15.73% or P240 billion worth of equity trading last year from 12.2% a year earlier.
TILLING THE COMMODITIES MARKET LANDSCAPE
.
Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) President and Chief Executive Officer Francis Lim and Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Arthur Yap lead the signing of an agreement that will lay the foundation for an organized commodities market in the country.
Under the memorandum of agreement, the PSE and DA will work together in putting up an organized commodities market that will help ensure fair and transparent trading for agricultural products. Read the rest of this entry »
.
BEYOND unifying the two trading sites of the Philippines Stock Exchange (PSE) in the proposed headquarters to be located in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, the bourse is also exploring the possibility of including the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. (PDEx) in the same site.
In an interview last week, PSE director Ismael G. Cruz said the PSE is currently in talks with PDEx for the latter to join the local bourse in the new site, which may be completed in 2014.
“It makes sense for us to co-locate. We are the only two exchanges in the country—we [PSE] have the equities exchange [while] PDEx has the fixed-income exchange,” said Cruz. “And down the road, we will both have derivatives products.” Read the rest of this entry »
ASEAN Trading Link countries: Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines
The long-awaited ASEAN Trading Link may do more to stimulate both investment in the Philippines and Filipino investing than any other current development.
According to the PSE Info Matrix a Memorandum of Understanding was signed earlier in the year between the exchanges of the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand. Within twelve months, investors based in any of these countries will be able to buy stocks on the index of any participating ASEAN exchange, just as easily as purchasing at their home exchange. Read the rest of this entry »
ASEAN Trading Link welcomes the Hochiminh Stock Exchange
Five ASEAN exchanges – Bursa Malaysia, the Indonesia Stock Exchange, the Philippine Stock Exchange, Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX) and the Stock Exchange of Thailand entered into an Accession Agreement with the Hochiminh Stock Exchange today that will include the latter in a regional pact which will explore cross-border trading amongst the ASEAN capital markets via an electronic gateway. Read the rest of this entry »
“The Market tells you where your market is, and you’d d••n well better listen.”
–Jim Clark
Assessment and Outlook
Cautiously optimistic. As of September 10, the NYSE Composite Index and the Nasdaq Index are at their highest levels of the year. Emerging Markets are boasting the best year-to-date returns of the last 10 years, as are the ASEAN markets . 2009 is the Philippine Composite Index’s best performing year-to-date over the past 5 years. All this suggests a strong 4th Quarter.
PSE Inks Pact with DepEd
In a thrust to further develop the Philippine capital market and enhance students’ financial literacy, the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) has teamed up with the Department of Education (DepEd) to pursue the integration of topics about the capital markets in secondary education.
The PSE’s surveillance department would continue to have access to data on broker identity in case there was need to investigate or monitor any illegal trading activity. — PHOTO: AP
MANILA – THE Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) has set new rules allowing brokerages to trade anonymously in a bid to attract more foreign investors and boost liquidity in the equities market.
Even the ghosts are bullish
Part of my induction onto the main trading floor of the Philippine Stock Exchange was an intro to the phenomenon of “Ghost Month”.
According to Chinese tradition, which is exceptionally strong in the Philippines, late August ushers in Ghost Month on the Chinese lunar calendar. If folklore is to be believed, it’s bad luck to buy things, bad luck to start new business, and bad luck to do much of anything during Ghost Month.
Philippine Stock Exchange and Thomson Reuters partnership
The Philippine Stock Exchange, in partnership with international news provider Thomson Reuters Philippines, launched on August 19, 2009 the new look for the Exchange?s electronic display board in Makati City, located at the Insular Building on Ayala Avenue corner Paseo de Roxas, one of the busiest crossroads in the financial district. The electronic board now publishes real-time market prices, news and summaries, designed to bring the stock market closer to the local investing community.
By request, here’s the latest on the Philippine Stock Exchange telecoms, plus a few other issues that have had truly gargantuan moves since January 1, 2009.
If you’re not sitting down, now would be a good time to do so.
.
Former Philippine President Cory Aquino
(This was read on both trading floors on August 3, 2009 before trading opened.)
Lord, we thank you for sending us Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, who, by her good deeds and leadership has been your golden champion for truth, freedom, and peace in the Philippines. As a national treasure, her departure from this world is an immeasurable loss for the country, which has benefited from her services and sacrifices as both commander-in-chief and mother to the nation.
But as Cory Aquino joins You, our maker, she also transforms into an indestructible symbol of democracy for the world; a never-ending beacon of hope and strength for the Filipino people to keep a vigilant watch over freedom; and most importantly, the better half of an idea or belief, of which Ninoy Aquino is the other half, that the Filipino is worth dying for. And because ideas never die, our beloved Cory Aquino
will never really be far away from us. Read the rest of this entry »
J.P. Morgan Securities Philippines, Inc.
MANILA, Philippines — Global financial services giant JP Morgan is telling investors to fatten their exposure in the Philippines, saying the country’s prospects are boosted by low interest rates, a strong peso, reforms in the power sector, an encouraging mining industry, and government mega-infrastructure spending.
JP Morgan is keeping its “overweight” call on the Philippines and advises investors to increase their holdings in the country, JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Ltd. chief Asian and emerging markets equity strategist Adrian Mowat said after an investor conference late Thursday.
It was JP Morgan’s first investor conference in the Philippines since the 1997-98 Asian economic crisis affected the country. The conference attracted around 80 fund managers, mostly from abroad.
“Now, investors are waking up to this market and people are increasingly going to a plane and coming back to Manila,” Mowat said.
“You live in a relative world when you look at emerging markets,” he said. “The Philippines started performing only in August last year. The reforms in the power sector are all relatively new, the movement in onshore bond yields is relatively new.”
JP Morgan Securities Philippines Inc. head of equity research Kelly Lim-Bate said there were four key drivers that would keep investors glued to the Philippine growth story this year.
She said these were a strong peso because of the country’s similarly robust balance-of-payments position; interest rates that would continue to be low and in turn spur loan growth; the government’s P1.7-trillion infrastructure spending program; and foreign direct investments coming back into the country, specifically in manufacturing, power and mining.
Source: Inquirer dated May 19, 2009
-ELECTRONIC LINKAGE AMONG ASEAN EXCHANGES Top officials of the ASEAN Exchanges sign a Memorandum of Understanding for an electronic trading linkage project that will position the ASEAN as an asset class and a viable investment destination. Photo shows (from left): Mr. Erry Firmansyah, President Director, Indonesia Stock Exchange; Mr. Yusli Mohamed Yusoff, Chief Executive Officer, Bursa Malaysia Berhad; Mr. Francisco Ed. Lim, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Philippine Stock Exchage, Inc.; Mr. Hseih Fu Hua, Chairman, Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited; and Ms. Patareeya Benjapolchai, President, The Stock Exchange of Thailand.
.
Southeast Asian regulators must particularly lay the ground rules, starting with the currency to be used, Harry Liu of brokerage Summit Securities said in an interview.
Mr. Liu said the integration of the stock exchanges is a good idea, but regulators should carefully study how it will be implemented.
He noted that while it provides opportunities for some local firms, it can also disadvantage others since companies will start competing with more developed firms in more advanced economies like Singapore.
The board of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) has approved the local exchange’s participation in a scheme allowing cross-border trading.
The tie-up is meant to allow exchanges in the region to deal with global pressures as a group. Regional bourses have been pummeled by the chaos on Wall Street following the collapse of major US investment banks.
The so-called ASEAN Board will link the PSE with the Bursa Malaysia, Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, Indonesia Stock Exchange, Singapore Stock Exchange and the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
In a separate interview, Grace C. Cerdenia of brokerage 2TradeAsia expects participating countries to maintain their respective corporate regulators, even as she cited the need for a uniform regulatory format especially for settlement rules.
“If a Filipino investor opens an account in a foreign country for example, will he be bound by the settlement rules there or by the rules here? Will the proposed bourses have common rules?” she asked.
Irving I. Ackerman of brokerage Ackerman & Co., Inc. said integrating regional bourses would be easier to implement this time with the ease in procuring dollars now compared with two decades ago, when he claimed to have first proposed the integration of regional exchanges. But it would be up to the exchanges which currency to use, he added.
The three brokers agreed that the proposed regional stock market would not take away local capital from domestic companies and will give Philippine firms access to foreign capital.
In a telephone interview, PSE President and Chief Executive Officer Francis Ed Lim said he and his counterparts have yet to schedule a meeting where they will discuss how to go about with the integration. Under a proposed memorandum of agreement, participating exchanges will commit to the trading of 30 companies each.
Mr. Ackerman said it would be better for the Philippines to start first with 10 stocks that will assure investors a good return.
Some analysts earlier noted that while the integrated bourse could allow market participants to share expertise, local brokerages might also lose out if investors choose to transact with an overseas firm to buy Philippine stocks.
Paris E. M. Murray