Online Trades Balloon to 64% of Total For January

Online transactions of stocks, futures and options reached the highest monthly level last month, according to a report by the Korea Securities Dealers Association on Wednesday.

The association said that January's online securities trading reached 223.1 trillion won ($180.2 billion), up 87.3 percent from the previous month.

Online transactions accounted for 64.5 percent of total trading volume in January, compared with 61.5 percent last December. Online customers were responsible for 56.5 percent of stock transactions made on the Korea Stock Exchange; nearly three quarters of total trades were conducted via the Internet or telephone.

The number of online accounts swelled to a record 3.94 million, or 44.6 percent of total active accounts, the association noted.

Individual retail investors accounted for 97.6 percent of total online transactions for both exchanges. In particular, they represented 99 percent of trading on the Kosdaq market.

Market officials said the trend will continue as more and more Koreans go online to invest.

by Kim Hyun-chul