Equity trading volumes in Australia sank last month as the four-day Easter weekend and national Anzac day holiday break impacted the number of trading days in the month.
But the fall was significantly sharper than recent years, dropping 27.4% to US$70.5 billion last month from US$97.1 billion in March, compared to last year’s 22.5% fall to US$90.4 billion from US$116.7 billion and 2010’s 10.8% fall from March to April.
Since January, participants on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) and Chi-X Australia have been subject to fees for ‘market supervision and competition cost recovery’ levied by Australian regulator, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC).
The new fees are estimated to amount to A$19 million annually and were developed by the Treasury and ASIC to cover the costs of new regulatory functions following the transfer of market supervision from the ASX to the regulator on 1 August 2010 and the introduction of market competition in equity securities, as well as the development of a framework to support market competition, according to ASIC.
Launched in October, since a February low of 0.58%, new venue Chi-X Australia has been increasing market share steadily, up to 1.79% in April from 1.02% in March.
PTSs ease TSE stranglehold
In Japan, proprietary trading systems continued to chip away at the supremacy of the primary bourse, with SBI Japannext and Chi-X Japan’s combined market share increasing to 4.99% from 4.65% in March. The Tokyo Stock Exchange’s hold on the market edged down 0.18 percentage points to 90.82% from 91.1%.
As seasonally expected, volumes across the region dropped last month. Hong Kong equity markets saw a 36.6% plunge to US$25.1 billion from US$39.6 billion, while Singapore dipped 12.7% to US$14.2 billion from US$16 billion in March.
Only one market in the region bucked the downward trend. Indonesia turnover rose in April to US$8.9 billion from US$7.7 billion the previous month.