The Cambodia Securities Exchange’s (CSX) total market cap stood at 7.61 trillion riel, or about $1.88 billion, at the end of the first quarter of the year, notwithstanding headwinds from the global economic downturn, escalating geopolitical tensions or the Covid-19 crisis.
It its Securities Trading Statistical Bulletin released on May 29, the Securities and Exchange Regulator of Cambodia (SERC) revealed that 5,470,178 shares were traded in the January-March quarter – 90.45 per cent of which were of companies listed on the CSX’s Main Board.
SERC director-general Sou Socheat told The Post on May 30 that although CSX trade volumes “seem to be smaller”, trading activity on the whole remained quite robust in spite of the uncertainty surrounding the world economy.
“Even if market prices have dropped somewhat, trading activity is still regular, which is great for our market even though we can see that buyers are only making modest purchases.
“Thanks to collaboration among stakeholders, we’ve encouraged more investors to enter the market, and hence the total volume of purchases is higher – even though there may have been fewer individual transactions,” he said.
Socheat projected that the market cap would witness a considerable rise when CamGSM Plc (Cellcard) and Mengly J Quach Education Plc (MJQE) list on the exchange in the near future.
Both Cellcard and MJQE plan to list on the Main Board through an initial public offering (IPO).
CSX CEO Hong Sok Hour told The Post on May 29 that the average daily trading value now exceeds $300,000, remarking that this figure would continue to climb, given limited impact from economic and geopolitical uncertainties.
He shared that there are about 1,000 new CSX trading accounts opened each month. “This gives us hope that, despite the effects of the global economic downturn and geopolitical issues, trade will be stronger than it was last year,” he said.
