INVESTORS from this month can trade Hong Kong stocks over the Internet with the click of a mouse and over the phone with the touch of a button.
Optimistically-named Boom Securities (Hong Kong) is poised to become the first company to allow retail investors to buy and sell shares of locally listed counters via the Internet at the end of this month.
Meanwhile, Hang Seng Bank has launched an automated phone service that allows its customers to enter stock trades directly through a telephone keypad.
Boom's managing director and chief executive Mark Duff said he wanted to democratise local share trading.
'We believe that individuals who have $15,000 have the right to invest in the stock market,' he said. 'We try to make trading easy. That is our goal.' Boom's low threshold stands in contrast to other brokerages, some of which boosted account-opening minimums as high as $500,000 during last summer's red-chip frenzy.
Trades cost $150 each - or 0.35 per cent on transactions exceeding about $43,000.
