Trading in Asian markets surged by over half a trillion dollars last month with significant gains in China and Japan leading the increase in trading across the region.
According to figures from Thomson Reuters, overall trading across Asian markets grew to US$1.58 trillion in February from US$1 trillion the previous month – the lowest value of trading in Asia for at least 18 months. February’s volumes were the highest in Asia since August last year, where volatility sparked by the European debt crisis caused trading to spike to US$1.8 trillion.
Trading turnover in China jumped by over 90% month-on-month to US$576.9 billion in February, from US$304.4 billion.
In Japan, a 42% monthly rise in turnover to US$399.4 billion appeared to benefit the incumbent Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), which regained market share at the expense of alternative trading venues, known as proprietary trading systems (PTSs). The TSE accounted for 91.5% of trading in Japanese stocks, compared to 89.45% in January, while closest PTS rival SBI Japannext lost 0.7% market share to end February on 2.51%.
However, SBI Japannext also reported that it broke records for monthly and daily average turnover in February, with ¥792.5 billion (US$9.7 billion) and ¥37.7 billion (US$462 million) traded respectively.
Newest PTS Chi-X Japan, owned by trading platform operator Chi-X Global, also suffered a decline in market share to 1.97% last month, from 2.65% in January.
Chi-X Australia, another Chi-X Global platform that launched to challenge the Australian Securities Exchange in October last year, also lost market share in February, accounting for 0.53% of turnover in the country’s stock turnover, compared to 0.86% in January.
Trading gains were also enjoyed in India, which grew by US$23.4 billion last month to US$79.5 billion, Hong Kong, where trading volumes increased by US$10 billion to US$37 billion and in Singapore, which rose by US$7 billion to trade US$20.9 billion in February.