A CSX employee walks in front of a screen displaying the CSX stock price index in 2017. Heng Chivoan
The Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) market capitalisation rose more than 40 per cent last year from 2017, mostly boosted by the rise in the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (PAS) share price, the CSX said.
Market capitalisation increased roughly 44 per cent from about $303.80 million at the end of 2017 to about $442.92 million at the end of last year, it said on Monday.
Prices of four out of the five stocks ended higher compared to the beginning of the year, while the other ended lower. Most notably, PAS’ stock jumped almost 100 per cent over the last year.
CSX Market Operations Department acting director Kim Sophanita said market confidence, stock price increases, trading activity and the additional Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone (PPSP) share offering were factors boosting CSX’s market capitalisation.
“The increase in market cap in 2018 shows the growth and robustness of the securities sector in Cambodia,” she said.
In October, the PPSP issued 14 million additional shares to two strategic institutional investors, JWD Infologistics Plc, a logistics company from Thailand, and Bok Seng Group, a Singaporean company, bringing its proceeds to nearly $10 million.
The announcement also shows that the CSX Index rose from 340.22 to 480.98 points, or a 41 per cent increase over the year, while the daily average trading value grew 101 per cent from about $13,149 to about $26,701 per day.
The average volume increased seven per cent from 15,161 shares to 16,228 shares per day. The number of trading accounts more than doubled from 8,973 to 20,525, with 84 per cent owned by domestic investors, the CSX said.
This year’s expectation
Sophanita said to further boost the CSX’s growth this year, it will work harder to attract more companies to list in the exchange.
It said extending trading hours from 3.5 to seven hours per day, building an institutional investor base and attracting more local and foreign investors are also the main tasks needed to be done.
“We expect that 2019 will be a successful year for the market,” she said.
RHB Indochina Securities Plc CEO Iv Ranarith said the CSX is now attracting greater attention from domestic and foreign investors, subsequently pushing up the volume of stock trading and prices, especially from the third quarter of last year.
“For 2019, I think that trading activity in the CSX will be visibly more positive. On stock prices, I dare not say how it will change because it depends on the strength of each listed company,” he said.
The current growth of the CSX’s market capitalisation shows investors’ confidence, he added.
