We have the smallest stock market in the region, and we have the shortest trading hours as well. This way, we barely get noticed by foreign investors busy monitoring other markets in the region. With PSE’s proposal to extended the trading hours by 2 hours (until the afternoon, from the usual 9:30am-12nn), this is a welcome news. More trading hours would mean more opportunities for our market to be noticed by foreign investors, and more time for local stock investors to trade.
Hopefully, this encourages more people to participate in trading, and boost our capital market.
Most Filipinos may still be intimated, and believe that stock trading is only for the affluent. But at this time and age, you dont have to be a millionaire to invest in the stock market. With several online stock brokers around, you can open an account with a minimum amount of 25K. If you’re in for the long haul, and thinking about your retirement fund — this is for you.
To know more about it.. Below is the article I lifted from the Inquirer…
PSE to extend trading by two hours in 2009
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) said it will extend trading by two hours in the afternoon starting 2009 to attract more overseas investors.
“Extending our trading hours will open our stock market to more investments by creating an overlapping link in trading hours with other exchanges,” Francis Lim, the exchange’s president, said in a statement.
“It is also a response to observations from foreign investors who pointed out that since the Philippine stock market is small, they first look at the bigger markets in the morning but by the time they get the opportunity to look at our market, the PSE is already closing, so why bother at all.”
Currently, the PSE only trades for two and a half hours in the morning, from 9.30 a.m. (0130 GMT) to noon (0400 GMT), giving it one of the shortest trading days in the region.
Afternoon trading, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., will be introduced next year to coincide with a new trading system, which is scheduled to go live on or before June 30, 2009.
The PSE tried afternoon trading in 2002 but it stopped after eight months because the extended hours, from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., coincided with the mid-day trading break of exchanges in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Thailand. Elizabeth Sanchez-Lacson, Philippine Daily Inquirer with Reuters
