DECISION FACTORS AFFECTING INVESTING ACTIVITIES IN THE EQUITY MARKET

Abstract This research aimed to determine how much impact the various elements had on stock market investments. Its main goal was to answer the following questions: a) respondents' demographics; b) respondents' assessments of the factors influencing stock market investing decisions, broken down into Personal Factors, Company and Industry Factors, and Economic Factors; and c) a statistically significant difference in respondents' assessments of the elements affecting stock market investing choices when they are classified by profile. The study's target respondents were individual online investors in the Philippine equities market. A total of 395 respondents were surveyed using the non-probability sampling technique. Based on the results, most of the respondents were 18 to 30 years old, female, single, bachelor's degree graduates, earning P20,000 or less per month, private employees, investing in both blue and non-blue-chip stocks for 1 to 3 years, and were attending less than four training/seminars per year. The study also determined that the top 3 influencing factors by order of influence were Investment Objective, Past Performance, and Interest Rate. The results assumed that these online investors use the Bottom-up Approach in their investment analysis. Specific recommendations were drawn for Stockbrokerages or Trading Participants, the Philippine Stock Exchange, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, government agencies, and private companies to address the issues revealed in the study