The Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) recorded its highest ever trading volume on Monday, exchanging 2,150,535 shares with a total value of more than $4.43 million, according to a CSX press release. The previous record was 939,498 shares traded on July 5, 2017.
Among the five listed companies traded throughout the morning, Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (PAS) stock accounted for 99 per cent of Monday’s traded shares, according to CSX.
“It is important to note that today’s record volume is driven mainly by a negotiated trade of 2,144,300 PAS shares through broker SBI Royal Securities, while the remainder [were traded] by the auction based trading method,” the press release said.
Negotiated Trading Method
According to CSX, the market’s unprecedented trading volume was due to the new Negotiated Trading Method (NTM) that was introduced by CSX in January in addition to the Auction Trading Method (ATM).
This is the second time the NTM has been used for trading at CSX. It was first used to trade 73,098 PAS shares in April.
The NTM allows investors to buy or sell large quantities of stocks or bonds in a single transaction, at a price negotiated with the counter party.
The ATM is an auction based trading method where investors’ highest bids are matched with the lowest price a seller is willing to accept. The New York Stock Exchange is an example of an auction market.
CSX Market Operations Department acting director Kim Sophanita told The Post on Tuesday healthy business results and the recent rising trend in stock prices have made PAS shares more attractive to investors.
“The huge trading volume on Monday is because a foreign company negotiated to buy shares from those holding a majority share of PAS."
“We are glad to have more trading activities and especially big transactions in the market as it proves that we are providing more liquidity to investors,” she said.
According to Sophanita, the average daily trading volume from the beginning of the year until December 20 was 6,468 shares. At the close of trading on Friday, 7,671 shares had been traded.
Chhay Ly Hour, Head of Securities at SBI Royal Securities Plc – the broker in the procurement of the PAS shares on Monday – said that since the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2018, many customers have registered to open a trading account with SBI Royal Securities.
There are more than 1,000 SBI Royal Securities account holders.
The growth of new accounts is due to more companies being listed on the CSX. Two more are expected to be listed early next year.
Ly Hour said: “More listed companies will make the Cambodian stock market even more robust in the future, although it is still less active compared to neighbouring countries.”
The CSX is currently looking to attract more financial institutions into the country’s burgeoning stock market. To achieve this goal, the CSX held a workshop on December 18 to raise financial institutions’ awareness of opportunities for growth on Cambodia’s stock exchange.
The CSX’s market index closed on Tuesday at 443.53 points, up from 439.32 on Monday, having traded 14,604 shares.
