Stock market capitalization up P973B in 2016

The size of the country's equities market grew by P973 billion this year as total market capitalization reached P14.44 trillion on the last trading day of 2016 from P13.47 trillion a year earlier, the Philippine Stock Exchange said Thursday.

In a statement, the PSE said that stock offerings helped support the market's growth and offset the decline in prices as the PSEi closed at 6,840.64 points, 1.6 percent lower than its close of 6,952.08 in 2015.

The PSE also noted that total capital raised for the year amounted to P170.12 billion, slightly lower than the P184.60 billion raised for the whole of 2015.

“The market experienced a lot of volatilities in 2016 arising from unexpected developments in the global political landscape as well as the interest rate hikes in the US.  Despite this, we churned a relatively healthy capital raising number, considering most of these activities happened during the second half of the year. This is a testament to the strength of the local economy,” PSE president and CEO Hans Sicat said.

The local bourse took note that it is preparing to launch the Dollar Denominated Securities (DDS) and the listing of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) companies in 2017 following the approval of the rules for both products in late 2016.

“We are pleased to add two new products to the list of capital raising instruments available at the PSE. These products should help facilitate additional listing activity and investor participation in the market,” Sicat noted.

In terms of other market indices, the All Shares Index finished the year with a gain of 4.1 percent to 4,156.07 while the Mining and Oil index was the best performing sectoral index as it gained 13.7 percent in 2016.

“We believe there will be a healthy pipeline of Initial Public Offerings and other fund raising activities in 2017. We will continue to work with our regulators so we can continue to introduce new products for our market in 2017 as we have successfully done so this year,” Sicat said.

Daily average value turnover for the year came in at P7.81 billion, down from P8.96 billion in 2015, according to the PSE. — John Ted Cordero/BM, GMA News