LOCAL stock market accounts rose by 50.1% to 2.86 million in 2024 from 1.91 million in 2023, driven by the growth in retail participation, the Philippine Stock Exchange, Inc. (PSE) said on Thursday.
Data from the Stock Market Investor Profile 2024 showed that retail accounts, which comprised 98.9% of total accounts, increased by 50.7% to 2.83 million from 1.88 million in 2023.
Institutional accounts, which made up 1.1% of total accounts, also rose by 12.1% to 32,284 from 28,806 a year earlier.
Local accounts reached 2.83 million, while foreign accounts totaled 29,876.
The PSE said the data was sourced from 121 active trading participants as of 2024.
Online accounts jumped by 62% to 2.47 million, accounting for 86.4% of total stock market accounts. Retail investors comprised 99.9% of total online accounts, based on data from 39 trading participants.
By gender, female retail investors accounted for 50.7% of the total, slightly higher than male investors at 49.3%.
Retail investors aged 30-44 made up 48.8% of the base, followed by those aged 18-29 at 26.5%, 45-59 at 17.4%, and those over 60 at 7.3%.
In terms of income, 82.4% of retail investors earned less than P500,000 annually, while 6.7% earned between P500,000 and P1 million, and 10.9% earned more than P1 million.
“Most retail investors work under the services sector, followed by industrial/manufacturing and professionals,” the PSE said.
The PSE also said that 84.9% of retail investors are locally employed, while 5% are unemployed, 3.6% are self-employed, 2.5% are overseas Filipino workers, 2.1% are students, and 2% are retirees.
Geographically, 49.3% of retail accounts were based in Metro Manila, 28.4% in the rest of Luzon, 10.9% in Mindanao, 10.8% in the Visayas, and 0.6% overseas.
Meanwhile, the report showed that the top foreign investors in the local bourse were Japanese (29.9%), Chinese (19.8%), and American (13%). — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave
