DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/16 October) — Filipinos are encouraged to invest in the stock market to take advantage of the booming Philippine economy that is projected to be the world’s 14th largest economy by 2050.
In a luncheon press conference at the Waterfront Insular Hotel Davao City on Wednesday, Philam Asset Management Inc. president Ferdinand Berba said it would be better if Filipinos would start investing in the Philippine Stock Exchange, as the country has entered this year the “demographic sweet sport,” meaning more young people have joined the workforce that drives the economy.
“Japan is not growing recently because as you can see, there are more adult population there. China is about to get out of the demographic window,” he said.
He said a younger population means a better economy because it’s the young people who would be employed by companies that are coming to the country.
“We have the capacity to fill in the jobs,” he said.
Philam also introduced the PAMI Equity Index Fund that will pool together the funds of the investors, which will be invested in the top 30 publicly-listed companies.
This allows the investors to ride the growth of the largest businesses in the Philippines.
Berba said the benefit of investing in the equity index fund is that the prospective investors need not be experts in stock investing, and they don’t have to study the nitty-gritty of stocks on a daily basis.
“One of our products, the PAMI Equity Index Fund, takes advantage of a long-term investment because it allows investors to hitch on to the growth of the Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi),” he said.
According to him, only one percent of the country’s population invests in the stock market.
Initial investment for the PAMI Index Equity Fund is P5,000.
Stock market expert and registered financial planner Marvin Germo said the Philippine economy has grown 344 percent so far this year, rebounding by over threefold from the 2008 world economic crisis.
He said “many people believe that when the stock market goes down, that’s when emotions kick in – either they panic and sell because of fear or they hold on to a bad stock within the false hope that it will go back up again.”
Germo suggested that if the stock market goes down, neophyte investors should not cut loose investments right away, but invest more instead because this is the time that the price per stock of the blue chip companies becomes affordable.
“It normally shocks people when I tell them that if they are financially liquid they should do the opposite and look for quality stocks that are cheaper,” he added.
He advised investors to go for long-term investments because they ease off the risks that go with stock investing. He explained that stock markets usually crash but go back up, or even higher, later on.
Germo said there’s no best time to invest in stocks than now. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)