Total stock trading volume of listed shares on both the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) and the OTC in 1999 amounted to NT$58 trillion and NT$532.79 billion respectively, according to the TSE.
Average trading volume per day stood at NT$110 billion, over a total of 266 trading days. Average monthly trading volume stood at NT$2.439 billion.
Meanwhile, Taiwan's largest brokerage in 1999 was Yuanta Securities (
The picture looks a little better, though, when Yuanta's market share is combined with its recent acquisition, Core Pacific Securities (京華證券). On its own, Core Pacific was Taiwan's third largest brokerage with a market share of 3.46 percent. Together, the two brokerages command 9.05 percent of the total market. That makes it more than twice the size of Taiwan's next largest brokerage.
Jihsun Securities (
The sixth to 10th largest brokerages in 1999 were, in order of market share, President (
Of all the brokerages, MasterLink (
Meanwhile, Polaris' (
The company, which has been concentrating on its Internet trading service since April, is now the biggest player in that market with more than a 30 percent slice.
The growth in Internet trading throughout the year has also demonstrated that this relatively new form of trading could be an important determinant in deciding which companies will survive in a saturated market of over 200 brokerage firms.
The scramble for a share of Internet trading reached a new level in September when President Securities launched its "free computer" program to attract investors to join its new Internet service.
Since then, almost every major securities company has offered similar and sometimes even more generous programs to entice stock investors. The result has been increased competition in the brokerage industry.
But while Internet trading has become an indispensable service for larger securities companies to provide, hundreds of small brokerages can still not afford such generous enticements as giving away free computers, analysts said. This will cause these brokerages to rapidly lose their competitiveness and gradually be taken over by larger securities companies.
Of the more than 200 securities companies currently offering brokerage services, as many as 30 percent will merge or be taken over by other securities companies in the next year or two, analysts said.
Indeed, the merger between Yuanta and Core Pacific may have set the precedent for a period of massive mergers and acquisitions in the securities market this year.
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