Wednesday June 9 1:19 AM ET
Online Trades Surge 47 Pct In Q1 - Report
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Online trades grew a record 47 percent to 500,000 a day from the fourth quarter of 1998 to the first quarter of 1999, boosted by a strong stock market and the increasing mass appeal of Internet brokerage, an influential industry analyst said Tuesday.
''Online trading firms now appear to be penetrating the mass markets, not just the techno-philic early adopters,'' said analyst Bill Burnham of securities firm Credit Suisse First Boston, in a research report. Almost 16 percent of all stock trades now take place in cyberspace, he added.
''If the fourth quarter of 1998 was a record quarter for the industry, then the first quarter of 1999 was quite simply a complete blow-out,'' Burnham said. Online trading grew at 34 percent to 340,000 a day between the third and fourth 1998 quarters.
Online brokers, who two years ago handled just 95,500 trades a day, have been growing at a rapid pace, thanks in part to heavy advertising spending. Investors also keep flocking to Internet brokers because of low commissions -- an average $15.75 a trade -- and ease of use.
The top five U.S. Internet brokers -- Charles Schwab Corp. (NYSE:SCH - news), E+Trade Group Inc., Toronto-Dominion Bank's (NYSE:TD - news) Waterhouse Securities, Datek Online and Fidelity Investments -- had a 71.3 percent market share, up from 67.5 percent a year ago, Burnham said.
E+Trade and Ameritrade Holding Corp., the No. 6 Internet broker, grew fastest in the first quarter, with each processing over 60 percent more trades than in the fourth quarter.
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