The Philippine Stock Exchange, Inc. has reported a rise in the number of Filipinos engaging in capital market investments primarily due to the GStocks PH platform — a user-friendly platform that revolutionized stock trading.

Based on the PSE's annual Stock Market Investor Profile report, there were a total of 1,906,019 stock market accounts as of end-2023, higher by 11.3 percent or 193,285 accounts from 1,712,734 accounts in 2022.

The PSE reported that the surge in online accounts was primarily driven by the GStocksPH platform, leading to a significant increase in new accounts.

As a result, online accounts took up 80 percent of all stock market accounts.

By the end of 2023, there were 1,525,768 online accounts, representing a 21.2 percent or 266,861 account increase compared to the previous year.

"Giving e-wallet holders direct access to the stock market is instrumental in our drive to increase retail investor participation in the market," PSE President and CEO Ramon S. Monzon said on Wednesday.

"PSE's partnership with the Department of Migrant Workers to conduct learning sessions on financial literacy and stock investing for Overseas Filipino Workers and their families is another initiative that can potentially boost the number of retail investors in the stock market once this program is fully implemented," he added.

The number of accounts, however, was muted by the cleanup of dormant accounts done by trading participants by Republic Act No. 9160 or the Anti-Money Laundering Act.

In terms of classification, retail investors dominated the market, accounting for 98.5 percent of all accounts, while institutional investors accounted for only 1.5 percent.

Similarly, local investors held 98.5 percent of all accounts, while foreign investors held the remaining 1.5 percent.

In the online space, retail accounts made up an overwhelming 99.9 percent of the total, with local investors owning 98.8 percent of those online accounts and foreign online accounts accounting for the remaining 1.2 percent.

The average value per online trade rose slightly by 1.8 percent to P47,050.48 compared to the 2022 average of P46,236.40.

Meanwhile, the 2023 average value per trade for the total market transactions was P85,385.54, a substantial increase of 9.6 percent from the 2022 average of P77,926.41.