E*Trade Australia reports Q4 trade 80% higher than Q3 1999
Sydney, Jan 4 (Asia Pulse) - Internet stockbroker E*TRADE Australia Ltd has reported that 1999's fourth quarter trading volume was up 80 percent on the third quarter.
It said its service now accounts for about 27 per cent of online trades on the Australian Stock Exchange. "On current growth rates we anticipate that E*TRADE will surpass the market leader in terms of online trades around mid-2000," said company chief executive officer Kerry Roxburg.
"We are aiming to exceed their combined online and phone trades by the end of the year." In the December quarter, E*TRADE customers executed 80 per cent more Australian Stock Exchange trades than in the September quarter.
E*TRADE participated in an average of 6.32 per cent of all online trades for the month of December, compare with 3.69 per cent in September. In comparison online trading on the exchange rose to more than 11 per cent of all trades, from a previous 8 per cent, during the quarter. Meanwhile E*TRADE customer accounts continued to grow during the period and now exceed 34,000, up 32 per cent since September 30, 1999.
E*TRADE said that despite a price cut on September 23, unaudited brokerage revenue for the December quarter was up by 50 per cent over the September quarter. "The current value of registered customer assets (cash and securities) is $1.2 billion, up 18 per cent since 30 September, 1999," E*TRADE said in a statement. "Gross brokerage revenue for the half year exceeded $7 million." Meanwhile, E*TRADE said the ANZ E*TRADE Online Investing service is performing in line with expectations.
The service was launched during the December quarter. ANZ Banking Group Ltd's marketing campaign for the service will initially target its 130,000 Internet banking customers and ANZ staff and shareholders.
Under an agreement between E*TRADE and ANZ signed in June, 1999, ANZ received the opportunity to be issued with 40 per cent equity in E*TRADE. E*TRADE said today that it does not expect ANZ to be entitled to any new shares during the first six month milestone ending March 31, 2000. At 1121 AEDT, E*TRADE shares are up 15 cents at $3.87 on turnover of 97,587.