The Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) office as seen in 2021. Hong Menea
The Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) has heralded 2022 as a major year, with seven new listings, versus just two in 2021.
These were: JS Land Plc’s initial public offering (IPO) on the Growth Board, three corporate bond issues from Royal Railway Plc, and three listings of government (sovereign) bonds issued by the Ministry of Economy and Finance – the first of their kind in Cambodia.
In the CSX 2022 Achievements, Outlook, and Plans for 2023 bulletin, the local bourse commented that 2022 “was filled with world-changing events causing massive hits to the world’s economy as a whole.
“The on-going and re-emergence of Covid-19 on top of the Russian-Ukrainian war have caused massive inflation and spike in oil and gas prices in practically every country,” it said, adding that with effective pandemic management, the Kingdom “was able to avoid most of the damaging effects unscathed”.
It reported 222 billion riel ($55.5 million) in capital raised last year – up 133 per cent over 2021 – with corporate and sovereign bonds accounting for 63 per cent and 32 per cent, respectively.
Although average daily trading volume witnessed a “slight decrease”, the corresponding value “doubled” for a second consecutive year, passing two billion riel and hitting “another record-high”, it said.
“Over 5,000” new trading accounts were registered, up 31 per cent on a yearly basis, while the CSX Index closed the year two per cent higher than in end-2021, it said, adding that the total free-float market cap rose to 7.5 trillion riel at end-December, versus 7.2 trillion a year earlier.
CSX Market Operations Department director Kim Sophanita “Nita” said the local bourse has “taken great strides towards the digitalisation of our trading platform to keep up with the modern trends of [a] digitalised lifestyle.
“The steps we have taken towards digitalising our market in 2022 [include] the introduction of the CSX Trade mobile trading application, updates to the investment guide Phsar Hun application, and the introduction of Online Account Opening.
“Due to the lessened social constraints, the CSX have committed to once again physically host investor education events along with online events throughout the year.
“The improvements can be seen via the increase in the number of followers throughout our social media accounts, reflecting the spiking public interest in trading with the CSX.
“Digitalisation is enabling easier access to and more inclusive capital markets. [The] government bond market has been emerging.
“Tax incentives for securities market participants remain intact and new initiatives on promoting liquidity and new product development have been well laid out. The stock market sell-off has left some stocks with strong earnings potential trading at very low valuations,” she said.
The CSX bulletin revealed a number of targets for 2023, including doubling the number of new securities listings to 14 and the average daily trading value to $1 million, the latter of which would make for a third consecutive year of record highs. The CSX also aims to triple the number of new trading accounts this year.
Nita added: “CSX believes that the capital market growth will speed up significantly, and that the targets we have set for ourselves [are] feasible in the coming year if the market gets committed supports from all the market participants and relevant governmental and private parties.
“[The bourse’s] performance [in 2022 was a blaze of] glory for the bright future of [the] Cambodian capital market. The momentum is on the right track.
“Our top management have a very huge dream [of] bringing prosperity to [the] Cambodian economy and each [participant in the] capital market – that is why we have set [such] high target[s] for 2023.
“With our positive macro- and micro-economic outlook[s] and well laid out strategies, we believe that [these targets are] achievable. Having said that, we seek [stronger industry] support, faith in our market and [joint commitment] to make it happen.”
