PSE first-half profit up 20% to P608M

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. (PSE) grew its first-half profit by nearly 20 percent as increased trading activity lifted revenues across its businesses.

On Friday, the local market operator reported its net income rose by 19.8 percent to P608.38 million from P508.03 million in the same period last year.

READ: Bullish market lifts PSE Q1 profit by 50%

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Operating revenues increased by 9.4% to P1.44 billion, up from P1.31 billion, due to higher trading and clearing revenues and account fees.

PSE president and CEO Ramon Monzon attributed the stronger results to a more active market, with average daily value turnover rising by 13.5 percent to P7.72 billion from P6.80 billion.

Monzon noted that the increase in liquidity is partly due to the Capital Markets Efficiency Promotion Act, which reduced the stock transaction tax from 0.6% to 0.1% starting July 1 of last year.

The measure brought local trading costs closer to those of regional peers, he added.

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Likewise, transaction fees increased by 10.7 percent to P303.43 million as trading volumes improved at both the PSE and Philippine Dealing Exchange Corp.

Securities Clearing Corp. of the Philippines service fees grew by 14.5 percent to P165.45 million. This came as equity trading value expanded by 14.5 percent to P926.54 billion from P809.27 billion.

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Revenues at Philippine Depository & Trust Corp. rose by 4.3 percent to P294.55 million, mainly due to higher fixed-income depository holdings.

Other operating revenues nearly doubled to P184.49 million from P94.23 million.

Meanwhile, total costs and expenses rose at a slower pace of 3.13 percent to P728.90 million from P706.77 million.

The PSE is also revising its listing rules as it seeks to attract more companies to the stock market.

Monzon further noted tiered public ownership framework and updated rules for preferred shares listings have been approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Under the new preferred shares rules, direct listing is allowed, while the minimum offer size was lowered to P100 million from P1 billion.

“With about P133.70 billion in forthcoming listings for the second half, including the initial public offerings of Mynt, Inc. and Vitro REIT, we are working toward a market that is easier to list in, less costly to trade in, and open to a wider range of investors and issuers,” Monzon said. INQ