MANILA - For the first time since being listed in 2003, the Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. (PSE) will join Manila's benchmark stock market index.

The exchange, along with DMCI Holdings Inc. and Security Bank Corp., will be included in the PSEi by November, it announced in a statement on Thursday. PSE will join other bourses such as the Singapore Exchange, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd. and Australian Securities Exchange, which currently form part of their countries' main stock indices.

The PSE said the revamp in the composition of the PSEi will take effect on November 3. This follows a review of trading activity conducted from July 2008 to June 2009.

"This recent review has the same objective criteria for inclusion in the PSEi which we have set out in 2006. The need to recompose the members of the index becomes more relevant in light of the financial crisis that has impacted the landscape of trading in the market," PSE president and chief executive officer Francis Lim said.

PSE, DMCI and Security Bank will replace Vista Land and Lifescapes Inc., Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. and ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. in the 30-company key index.

To make it into this basket of select stocks, a listed company must have an average daily value turnover of not less than P5 million and should be traded at least 95% of the days that its shares are eligible for trading.

To be included in the sector indices, meanwhile, firms must have a daily trading value of at least P1 million and a 75% tradability.

By next month, all six sectoral indices will have fewer member-companies due to the slowdown in market trading during the review period.

Only two companies—Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and Apex Mining Co. Inc.—will be added to the sector indices, particularly the holding firms and mining and oil, respectively.