Fears of missing out on the $1.8 trillion stock rally in Hong Kong and mainland China have prompted young investors to open accounts with online trading platforms, while others are queuing up at local brokerages to get in on the action. action.
However, things haven’t been smooth sailing for many new investors, most of whom are in their late 20s and early 30s. Some wannabe traders have been unable to open accounts on banks’ and brokers’ online trading platforms as the systems have been overwhelmed by the sudden influx of users, brokers said.
Those who didn’t want to miss the party abandoned their efforts online and turned to traditional, targeting brokers’ physical branches to open stock trading accounts. Some felt this went faster with the help of the staff.
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“It is interesting to see that many young investors, in their 20s and 30s, have visited branches of some of Hong Kong’s oldest brokers in recent days to open new share trading accounts,” said Tom Chan Pak-lam, permanent honorary chairman of the Bank. Institute of Securities Dealers, a trade association for stockbrokers.
“Usually, these young investors tend to open accounts with online brokers, but now some of them have gone to the physical branches of some traditional brokerage firms as it is possible that some online platforms were too busy with customers wanting their accounts open new accounts to trade stocks.”
Chan said that as the market rally continues, it is likely that more investors will open stock accounts to trade stocks.
The Hong Kong benchmark Hang Seng Index rose 18 percent in September, the best month since November 2022. Photo: Xiaomei Chen alt=The Hong Kong benchmark Hang Seng Index rose 18 percent in September, the best month since November 2022. Photo: Xiaomei Chen >
With the market rally strong and sales hitting record highs, this has attracted interest from youngsters keen to join in as well as sleeper investors returning to the market, he added.
The Hang Seng index rose 2.4 percent on Monday to close at 21,133.68, bringing September’s gain to 18 percent, the best month since November 2022. The rally picked up after the US Federal Reserve issued its key interest rate reduced. This marked the start of the rate-cutting cycle, with Beijing’s September 24 stimulus package to support the economy fueling $1.8 trillion in stock gains in Hong Kong and the mainland.
Tiger Brokers (HK) is one of the online players that has seen customers opening new accounts. Account openings rose 73.4 percent last week from a week earlier, a Tiger spokesperson said in response to questions from the Post. About 80 percent of the new accounts were opened by people under the age of 30, he added.
The number of active users of Tiger’s mobile phone app also rose 10 percent week over week, he said.
Nasdaq-listed Futu, one of the city’s largest online brokers, said last week that account opening requests were 40 percent higher than normal, with both its online platform and physical stores showing strong investor interest .
Stock trading volume through Futu’s online platform rose 95 percent last week from a week earlier, while the number of investors rose 60 percent, a spokeswoman said.
Both volume and revenue reached two-year highs, she said.
“The buying frenzy we saw among investors over the past week was mainly in Hong Kong equities and A-shares through the two equity connect programs with Shanghai and Shenzhen,” the spokeswoman said.
Among the stocks seeing strong investor interest are mainland tech giants such as Tencent Holdings, Meituan, Xiaomi and Alibaba Group Holding, which owns the Post.
“Many investors said they had bought a lot of shares at higher prices several years ago and would like to sell them through Futu if the market continues to recover,” she said.
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