Virtual group launches new investor Net service

Kuala Lumpur, Jan 28 (Asia Pulse) - The Virtual Group of Companies today launched the "Investors Xchange", an online service that provides retail trading of equities and futures "live" over the Internet.

Executive chairman Nik Mohamed Din, said Investors Xchange was a service that provided easy, cheap trading for the masse and had set a target of 50,000 subscribers this year.

Under "Click n Trade" cybertrading which started today, he said investors worldwide would have access to a panel of brokers with whom they could execute real-time trade over the internet through Investors Exchange. This would be in tandem with the real-time quotes of three exchanges - the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE), the Commodities and Monetary Exchange (Commex) and Kuala Lumpur Options and Financial Futures Exchange (Kloffe) - through one financial portal at www.InvestorsXchange.com.

Currently, two brokerages Jupiter Securities and South Johore Securities are participating in this scheme and Virtual hopes to rope in many more. The charge for its service is RM20 a month for "live price" trading and free for "price movement" information.

Virtual Commerce Holdings Sdn Bhd, which operates Investors Xchange, was the result of the successful restructuring of the former KLSE Chilong Systems Sdn Bhd, the operator of StockWatch and FISH*Net Services that provided on-line financial information and transaction services.

At a press conference later, Nik Din pointed out the need to have some form of regulations on the Internet so that only genuine people could run such a service. Meanwhile, to a question on the merger of stock brokerages, Nik Din who is also executive chairman of OSK Holdings, said there was potential for merger by its securities firm and was currently looking at its viability. Following such consolidation, OSK would spread its locations to Johor, Melaka and Ipoh.