Millennials make up almost half of stock investors

MANILA - The number of investors in the Philippine Stock Exchange increased last year thanks to online platforms, especially GCash's online stock investment service GStocks PH, the PSE said on Wednesday.

According to the PSE, there were 1.9 million stock market accounts at the end of 2023, higher by 11.3 percent from 1.7 million accounts in 2022.

"The growth was mainly due to new accounts opened through the GStocks PH platform, which also pushed the share of online accounts to 80 percent of total stock market accounts," the PSE said.

Online accounts stood at 1.53 million as of end-2023, up by 21.2 percent or 266,861 accounts, the PSE added.

While there are several other online platforms for investing in stocks, PSE President and CEO Ramon Monzon said giving e-wallet holders direct access to the stock market was instrumental in increasing retail investor participation in the market.

GCash formally launched GStocks PH in October last year in partnership with AB Capital Securities Inc. The feature was part of its suite of investment services which include GFunds, GCrypto and the still-to-be-launched GStocks Global.

Millennials and Gen Zs take up stocks

Meanwhile, millennials and Gen Zs made up the bulk of investors in listed companies, the PSE said.

Investors in the 30 to 44 age range continued to have the biggest share in online and total accounts making up 49 percent of online accounts and 45.6 percent of total accounts

Investors aged 18 to 29 years old meanwhile made up 21.5 percent of online accounts, while 45 to 59-year-olds made up 18.6 percent, and 60 and over made up 10.9 percent. 

Female investors also made up 51 percent of online accounts while male investors comprised the remaining 49 percent in 2023.

But in terms of total accounts, there were slightly more male investors in 2023 at 50.6 percent compared with female investors at 49.4 percent.

The PSE was up more than 6 percent in the first quarter, but these gains were erased around April as concern grew over inflation, and the high interest rate environment. 

Some analysts expect the market to trade sideways until a clearer picture on inflation emerges and as the Bangko Sentral reduces rates in the latter half of the year.