Rakuten Trade records surge in trading post-GE14
KUALA LUMPUR: Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd associate firm Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd saw its most active trading within the first week of the recently-concluded 14th General Election (GE14).
Rakuten Trade managing director Kaoru Arai said this was a sign of renewed investor confidence in the market following a sluggish April.
“We saw revenue from our brokerage fees increase 25 per cent in May compared with April. We also saw a 15 per cent increase in trading value and a 40 per cent increase in account openings,” he said in a media briefing.
“This has been our most active weekly period since we started our trading platform,” he said, adding that trading was sluggish on the platform last month as investors adopted a wait-and-see approach ahead of GE14.
Rakuten Trade, the country’s first completely digital equities broker, turned one-year-old recently.
It currently boasts more than 12,000 clients, of which around 40 per cent are first-timers to the equity broking market.
“Almost 80 per cent of our clients are below 40 years old, and most of them are active traders,” he said.
“We also see an average of 1,000 new accounts a month, which shows that more digitally inclined investors are ready for a fresh trading experience.”
However, Arai did not disclose Rakuten Trade’s house target for new client acquisitions.
The firm is also set to launch a Contra Trading Facility, which will complement its existing Cash Upfront facility.
Rakuten Trade is a 50:50 joint venture between Kenanga IB and Japan’s Rakuten Securities Inc.