Hong Kong brokerage Bright Smart bets on online trading apps, with eye on mainland Chinese clients

Hong Kong-listed brokerage Bright Smart Securities hopes to capitalise on growing interest in the city’s stock market among mainland Chinese investors, and said online trading would be key to its success.

“Securities firms have to use online trading to grow their businesses,” Peter Yip Mow-lum, Bright Smart’s chairman and founder, said in an interview. “This way, securities firms can use a little bit of capital to do a huge amount of business. Trading volumes can increase from 10 to a hundred times with the help of technology.”

The company’s profit for the financial year ending in March rose 7.3 per cent to HK$473 million (US$61 million), it’s second-highest on record. Order volumes touched 5.6 million for the first five months of the year, up about 40 per cent from the same period last year, Yip said.

Bright Smart’s success stands in sharp contrast with the city’s smaller brokers, 35 of which have closed shop in the 12 months to the end of March, the fastest rate since records began in 2003, according to data from the Hong Kong stock exchange.

“Securities firms will need to provide mobile trading and other online platforms, if they want to attract new clients. If firms don’t provide online trading, they may slowly lose their clients,” said Gordon Tsui Luen-on, chairman of the Hong Kong Securities Association.

The launch of new online trading applications BS Securities, called Baobao on the mainland, and BS Futures, called Doudou in China, in February 2019 has helped the company increase its total number of client accounts by about 20 per cent. The applications have helped Bright Smart reach more mainland clients, who have shown an increasing appetite for Hong Kong stocks and futures, as well as initial public offerings, Yip said.