The Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. (PSE) on Thursday said it recorded some P122.46 billion in capital raised from the sale of primary and secondary shares in the first half of the year, exceeding the full-year amount raised in 2020.
Capital raising activities in the first semester included two initial public offerings (IPO), two follow-on offerings, two stock rights offerings and three private placements.
“We are pleased that companies continue to tap the equities market for their funding requirements. Capital raising activities at PSE continue to be robust and we remain optimistic that we will be able to hit our targets by yearend. We will be conducting next month a few IPO marketing events targeted at SMEs to convince them to take advantage of our relaxed listing rules and the pandemic relief rule, which is in effect until next year,” PSE President and CEO Ramon S. Monzon, said.
Trading activity was also higher in the first semester with daily average value turnover at P8.96 billion, up by 22 percent year-to-date and 36 percent year-on-year.
Foreign funds registered a net selling of P77.8 billion in the January-to-June period.
Meanwhile, the benchmark 30-company PSE index (PSEi) closed at 6,901.91 on the last trading day of June, down by 3.3 percent year-to-date. The All Shares index dipped by 0.7 percent. Among the sectoral indices, the Services, Financials, Industrial, and Mining and Oil sectors posted gains while the Holding Firms and Property sectors ended lower.
“On May 14, the PSEi slid to its lowest intraday level for the year at 6,080.94 but we have seen the main index recover since, testing the 7,000-mark intraday on June 16. For the month of June, the benchmark index gained 4.1 percent month-on-month owing to increased investor confidence as more Filipinos get vaccinated. If government can meet its target of vaccinating up to 70 million people by the end of the year or even get close to said target, the stock market could return to pre-pandemic levels in the near term,” Monzon said.
“PSE still has a lot of activities lined up in the next six months, including the launch of new thematic indices, data analytics platform and revamped market education website. We will also continue hosting our twice-a-month market education webinars for retail investors, who have been very instrumental in driving the market’s development during the pandemic.”