PETALING JAYA: The launch of foreign equity trading into the US by Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd has seen robust response with close to RM40 million traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the National Association of Securities Dealers (Nasdaq) in its first month of service.
Rakuten Trade CEO Kazumasa Mise revealed that more than 16,000 US accounts have been activated with more than 88% trading first on Bursa Malaysia prior to trading US stocks.
He stated that this reflects a growing acceptance by Malaysian investors to have a balanced yet diversified investment portfolio of stocks not just by sector but by market.
“The equity trading landscape is changing with a surge in retail investors in recent years supported by digitalisation granting greater access to foreign markets.
“More Malaysians with an aptitude for self-directed trading can take the next step towards becoming ‘global investors’ without high transaction fees and obstacles that were more prevalent even five years ago,” said Mise in a statement.
The feature is available via its Cash Upfront Account which offers trading in both Malaysia and the US at the low brokerage of RM7 to RM100, competitive exchange rates and free access to real-time stock prices, as well as access to research reports from their in-house research team and Motley Fool.
Rakuten Trade had seen more than 240,000 trading accounts activated as at Feb 28 and handled almost RM100 billion in total combined trading value in Malaysia and US since business day one in 2017.
