Asian markets have not made full recoveries from their summer lull in terms of trading activity, though some markets have regained ground.
During November, the Japan Exchange Group’s (JSX) cash equity market’s 1st section’s average daily trading value was yen 2.486 trillion. Trading value for the 2nd Section was yen 0.4663 trillion, a seven-year high. Trading value for the Japanese ETF market in November was yen 2.7102 trillion, the second highest monthly level for this year following June.
“In September through November, I see some improvement in Japanese volumes over the summer ‘slump’, but nowhere near May/June levels. I heard that investors might not feel sure where Abenomics is going with quantitative easing in Japan,” said Ofir Gefen, head of electronic brokerage and analytics, Asia Pacific at ITG. “However Hong Kong continues the volume recovery we saw in September through into October and November and is now getting close to June volumes.”
For the year to date, average daily turnover in Hong Kong for the first 11 months of 2013 is $63.097 million, a 19% increase compared to $53.233 million for the same period in 2012.
In Singapore, the picture looks bleaker. The value of securities traded during November was S$19.5 billion, down 30% from S$27.8 billion in 2012. The daily average value of securities traded declined to S$927 million from S$1.3 billion.
“Singapore volumes continue to trend down in October/November,” said Gefen. “The trend is pronounced there and October/November was significantly weaker than even the summer months.”
So, how does all this bode for 2014? Andrew Maynard, global head of trading and execution at CLSA is cautiously positive.
“I’m definitely a little bit more optimistic in the past few months than the third quarter. Maybe 2014 will be a little better than 2013, but I’m not expecting monumental changes.”