The pandemic has led mom and pop to stock trading. The rise of retail stock trading has benefited COL Financial (COL). COL the leading stockbroker in the country has seen a surge in retail account opening and activation.
The reported surge in retail trading has sent COL shares soaring to a 52-week high of 5.10 a share. Although COL has gone down, it is still up 121.39% from a year ago.
If you missed the COL boom, the PSE is an option. From a year ago, PSE is down 15.14%. PSE has the same characteristics of COL, a platform business and debt free. PSE is the ultimate beneficiary in the rise of retail stock trading.
In fact, the pandemic-induced slowdown has lesser impact on the revenue of PSE than on that of COL. In the nine-month period of 2020 COL revenue is down 25% as compared to a similar period in 2019. While PSE revenue is down only 2.17% on a similar period.
Aside from the rise of the retail traders, there are other catalysts for growth for PSE. In the near term, PSE will be relaxing listing rules for SMEs allowing more SMEs to qualify for public offerings. Further down the road, there is the acquisition of the fixed income exchange operator.
This analysis is an independent viewpoint on publicly traded stocks in the Philippine market. Accuretti Systems Inc. trades stocks in the Philippine market.
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