More Korean brokerages offer daytime U.S. stock trading service

Screen at the New York Stock Exchange on Feb. 8. [Photo by Yonhap]

More South Korean brokerage houses have started to offer trading services for offshore stocks in the daytime for individual investors, which so far has been provided by just a few firms.

According to multiple industry sources on Wednesday, NH Investment & Securities Co., Korea Investment & Securities Co., and Kiwoom Securities Co. and others have started to offer daytime trading service for U.S. stocks.

NH Investment has further launched an around-the-clock stock trade service as the first industry player. A trading day begins with the Korean daytime session from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., free market session from 6 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., regular session from 11:30 p.m. to 6 a.m., and after market from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.

“Individuals are now able to trade U.S. stocks at any time,” said an unnamed official from NH Investment. “We now offer service for the longest hours.”

The daytime services come as Korean brokerages sign up for alternative trading systems (ATS) that provide trading during overnight sessions under approval from U.S. regulators, including the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

U.S. stock transactions in the daytime in Korea had only been available at certain brokerage houses including Samsung Securities Co. based on the brokerage’s exclusive agreement signed in February last year with U.S. Blue Ocean Technologies LLC for its ATS. The exclusive agreement expired on Tuesday and other domestic brokerages now can offer daytime trading services in Seoul.

Kiwoom Securities has launched daytime U.S. stock trading service between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., raising the total hours to 21 hours and 30 minutes. Toss Investment will also offer more trading hours from Monday for service between 10 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Its real-time fractional share trading service, however, is only available during the regular market session.

“Competition among brokerages will heat up as they will want to attract more individual investors with their daytime U.S. stock trading sessions,” said an unnamed industry source.