IDX Boss, OJK, KSEI: In 2020, Retail Investors Are Proud!

JAKARTA - Retail investors in 2020 received praise from the Self Regulatory Organization (SRO). Both the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), the Financial Services Authority (OJK), and the Indonesian Central Securities Depository (KSEI) consider the rise of the Composite Stock Price Index (IHSG) amid the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to the big role of retail investors.

"2020 is the year for retail investors in the Indonesian capital market," said PT Bursa Efek Indonesia (IDX) President Director Inarno Djajadi while giving a speech at the closing of the 2020 capital market trading which was broadcast online, Wednesday, December 30 yesterday.

Indeed, the number of investors in the Indonesian Capital Market consisting of investors in stocks, bonds and mutual funds has grown rapidly this year. They are looking for ways to manage money amidst limited activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is recorded that the number of investors reached 3.87 million Single Investor Identification (SID) as of December 29, 2020, or an increase of 56 percent compared to the position at the end of 2019. Of that number, stock investors also increased by 53 percent to 1.68 million SID.

When viewed from the number of daily active investors, there were 94,000 investors as of December 29, 2020, an increase of 73 percent compared to the end of last year. Daily active investors are investors who make at least one transaction a day.

In addition, active retail investors also recorded fourfold growth throughout 2020. As of January 2020, the average daily transaction frequency of retail investors was around 51,000 transactions, while as of December 2020 the average was around 206,000 transactions.

With the increasing participation of domestic retail investors in the country's stock market, a new record for trading transactions was achieved in 2020. The highest daily share transaction frequency was on 22 December 2020, amounting to 1,697,537 transactions.

President Director of PT Kustodian Sentral Efek Indonesia (KSEI) Uriep Budhi Prasetyo said that the increase in the number of investors was supported by the digitalization process in the Indonesian capital market, particularly for the process of opening investment accounts.

"More than 50 percent of these have accounts at fintech selling agents," he explained.

Uriep is also optimistic that investor growth will accelerate in the future even though the COVID-19 pandemic is over. In fact, he is very confident that the number of SIDs will exceed 5 million investors by 2020.

Chairman of the OJK Board of Commissioners Wimboh Santoso added, it seems that capital market players are not affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The enthusiasm of capital market industry players is actually increasing amidst limited activities.

"Our capital market is noted to be increasingly liquid and deep. This is reflected in the increase in the average frequency of trading to the highest in ASEAN. The increase in the number of capital market investors to 3.87 million investors, up 56 percent compared to last year and the increasingly solid domination of retail investors. , "said Wimboh.

Wimboh assessed that the JCI managed to survive amid the swift outflows of foreign funds on the capital market driven by domestic investors, including retail investors.