The average daily trading value on the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) could well reach $1 million by 2023 and $100 million “over the next seven years”, buoyed by growing public interest in local securities, according to the bourse’s CEO Hong Sok Hour.

Sok Hour told The Post on October 26 that “more than 2,000” CSX trading accounts were opened from October 21-23 – corresponding to the three-day “My First Stock 2022” stock market exhibition – which he affirmed is equivalent to the number normally created over “seven months”.

“Overall, we picked up that the public is showing more interest in the local stock market than we’ve seen in the past, about four to five times as much as in previous events. This is a great beacon of hope for us,” he said, claiming that interest had been on the rise even during the lead-up to the event.

With a renewed sense of hope, Sok Hour affirmed that the $1 million and $100 million targets “do not seem too difficult for us, maybe we can do it”.

Meanwhile, PP Link Securities Co Ltd (PPLS) said it enrolled many new CSX investors at the three-day event, yielding in 730 new trading accounts.

“The results that we got show the public’s growing interest and knowledge of securities investment which has been relentlessly promoted by the market regulator, the market operator, securities brokers and all relevant parties,” PPLS chairman and director Chea Sothea said.

At the opening day of the event, Securities and Exchange Regulator of Cambodia (SERC) director-general Sou Socheat confirmed that, as of September 30, his agency has issued 33,186 investor identification numbers, to 28,618 Cambodian entities and 4,568 foreign ones.

“In keeping pace with the evolution of technology, investors can easily request an investor identification number online and effortlessly open an online trading account,” he said.

“In the interest of making the local market more dynamic and competitive with regional counterparts, I’d like to ask securities companies and issuers to actively promote the CSX, encourage trading and convince enterprises to turn to the stock exchange for financing options,” he added.

A CSX report revealed that average daily trading volume and value reached all-time highs last year, at 234,628 shares and $269,169, respectively, or up by 400 per cent and 127 per cent over 2020.

The bourse gained more than 4,000 new traders in 2021, bringing the total to over 30,000, as mobile trading system (MTS) users increased by 7,000.

MTS orders stood at 477,067 last year, up by 281 per cent from 125,268 in 2020, suggesting success in trade digitalisation improvements at the CSX, the report said.

The CSX is co-owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance and Korea Exchange (KRX) on a 55:45 ratio.