Online stock investors soaring

Online securities trading has steadily gained popularity among retail investors in Macau, according to service providers, Macau Business reports in its June issue. The actual number is hard to quantify since there is no official data on online securities trading in Macau. But two service providers contacted by Macau Business say the number of traders has soared. Online trading company Boom Securities (Hong Kong) Ltd established a foothold in Macau seven years ago, in association with BNU bank. Today, it has around 5,000 users. About 75 percent are considered “active users”. This means they have at least one transaction a week, on average. Boom director Nelson Lui says the number of users is growing, increasing by 20 percent last year and generating turnover of HK$4 billion (US$510 million). Unlike BNU, which relies on a third party to provide online securities trading services to retail customers, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Macau) has its own trading platform. The service was inaugurated in 2009 and last year the number of users grew by 230 percent. ICBC says it had registered “thousands” of Macau users by last month but gave no precise figures. Turnover reached HK$2 billion last year. ICBC’s users prefer to trade on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Read the full version of this article in the June issue of Macau Business magazine, now available at selected newsstand outlets in Macau, Hong Kong bookshops, by subscription and at partner hotels, restaurants, airlines and ferry carriers in Macau.