Asian trading volumes have crashed to their lowest levels so far this year, led by China and Japan, the region’s largest markets, according to figures from Thomson Reuters.
According to the data vendor’s Equity Market Share Reporter for September, overall trading volumes in Asia dropped by 28.9% from US$1.8 trillion in August – the second highest this year – to US$1.28 trillion in September. Trading volumes across the globe were particularly inflated in August because of European and US debt fears.
September’s total was US$144 billion down on the year’s previous low of US$1.42 trillion in June. Trading volumes were exceptionally dire in China, which traded US$347 billion of equities in September, 40% lower that August’s total of US$570 billion.
Japanese equities volumes were also hit hard, falling by US$100 billion month-on-month to US$341 billion in September. Chi-X Japan cemented its position as the largest alternative venue – known in Japan as a proprietary trading system (PTS) – trading US$7.59 billion, or 2.22% of Japanese stocks in September. However, PTSs lost ground to the Tokyo Stock Exchange in September, with the domestic bourse accounting for 91.57% market share, up from 90.55% in August.
Turnover in Korea, Asia’s third largest market, dropped to €169.2 billion in September, from US$234.2 billion in August.
There were also significant declines in Singapore, which traded US$23 billion in September compared to US$32 billion in August, Hong Kong, which slumped 25% to trade a total of US$122 billion last month, and Australia, where trading turnover decreased to US$105 billion in September, from US$134 billion in August.
Declines were more muted in India, which only saw a 4% drop in turnover to US$60 billion last month, from US$63 billion in August.