THE Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday said it has deferred participation in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Link slated for next year.
In a disclosure, the bourse announced it has postponed its planned inclusion in the Asean Link as it “undertakes efforts to generate further interest and support for the project from its local brokers and the investing public.”

Hans Sicat, PSE president and chief executive, told reporters the bourse has volunteered to be linked at a much later date as the group irons out the technical aspect of the linkage whereas the local bourse bids for higher trading volumes.

The exchange is working on an online service bureau, which will develop the software platform for trading participants who cannot develop their own. The PSE is also banking on the Personal Equity Retirement Account and Exchange Traded Funds to increase trading volumes in the market, Sicat said.

Participating bourses are also making sure the technical component of the linkage works perfectly with Asean Link technical provider SunGard.

“We want to make sure as a group that when you turn this on, it’s not going to turn on then nothing works. We want to make sure that when you turn it on and it’s working incrementally until the end,” said Sicat.

The group is set to meet on December 2 in Hanoi to finalize pertinent details related to the linkage.

A final target date to rejoin the Asean Link has not been set, Sicat said. Aside from the PSE, the participation dates of the Hanoi Stock Exchange, HoChiMinh Stock Exchange and Indonesia Stock Exchange have yet to be announced.

The first stage will see the connectivity of the Singapore Exchange and Bursa Malaysia in June 2012 and the Stock Exchange of Thailand added in August 2012 after its new trading engine goes live.
“In the meantime, [the PSE] will continue to keep abreast of the initiatives of the Asean Exchanges towards promoting and strengthening the ASEAN capital market,” the bourse said.

The PSE said it will continue to be a part of the other current initiatives of the Asean Exchange such as the Asean stars, a list of the 30 most “exciting” stocks from the participating bourses, and the formation of the Asean index series.

Despite the delay, the PSE will continue to implement afternoon trading beginning next year. While trading volumes have improved year to date, current average trading volumes have been flat from the previous month, the time when the PSE extended trading by an hour, because of the eurozone crisis, Sicat said.

The PSE has also received “constructive” comments on its proposed amendments to the minimum public ownership rule, which contains a provision on delisting a non-compliant company after a one-year grace period.

As of September, 41 companies had yet to meet the 10-percent public float requirement, including about seven companies that have a public float of 5 to 10 percent, and 10 to 12 companies with public ownership of between 1 and 5 percent.

In the first quarter next year, the bourse will come out with a multi-year program that will help listed companies attain a minimum public ownership of 12 percent.

“We have this initiative of trying to figure out how to encourage the market to get to a higher float. I think we all recognize that as a developing economy, not everybody can do that quickly,” he said.