KUALA LUMPUR: Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd expects retail participation in Bursa Malaysia to reach 30 per cent within the next two years, driven by the industry’s concerted effortS to bring in younger traders.
Executive director and head of Equity Broking, Lee Kok Khee said retail participation, which was at its lowest of 14 per cent in February last year, now stands at 23.98 per cent.
“We wish to grow the numbers and given various programmes developed by Bursa Malaysia and Securities Commission to also grow the segment, we believe it is achievable,” he told reporters on the sidelines of KenTrade Trading Challenge here yesterday.
The challenge saw See Kwan Chian, 27, from the public category win the grand prize of a brand new Volkswagen Jetta worth RM130,888.
The trading challenge was designed to simulate real-life trading based on real-time market data from the local bourse, and each participant was given RM1 million in virtual money to trade from Oct 13 to Nov 7.
Lee said Kenanga planned to extend the challenge whereby the top five semi-finalists from each student and public categories were automatically selected to compete for next year’s challenge.
“The challenge will be held in the first quarter of next year and instead of trading using virtual money, the 10 finalists will be given RM100,000 real money each to start trading.
“We are still crafting out the terms and conditions, but it is not going to be virtual trading anymore, so there will be real losses and real profits,” he said.
Furthermore, Kenanga will also develop a trading challenge smartphone game in 2015, which will run all year long, as its continuous commitment to educate the public on trading in the stock market. — Bernama