Sharesies says retail investor confidence and US tech stocks are behind its record $1.28 billion in trading volumes during the June quarter

Retail investor confidence is rising despite the tight economic environment, according to Sharesies. 

The retail investment platform's latest Sharesies Index report shows $1.28 billion in trades during the June quarter, driven by increased investor confidence.

It’s the highest quarterly trading volume in the platform's history.

Sharesies co-founder and co-CEO Sonya Williams said Sharesies was seeing people prioritise their long term wealth building at a time when the struggle of the cost of living and tougher economic environment was top of mind. 

“I think it really shows that people may be seeing a bit of a light at the end of the tunnel,” she told interest.co.nz.

Sharesies’ quarterly index reports gauge the sentiments of retail investors in New Zealand and Australia around wealth and investing trends.

Trading volumes in April reached $399.6 million and climbed higher to $425.2 million in May and $458.6 million in June. 

Its biggest day of trading in the quarter was June 21, with volumes of $36.3 million.

According to the Sharesies Index, US tech stocks – in particular NVIDIA and AI-related investments – were behind the strong volumes across the quarter.

Meme stocks also moved up the ranking in the Sharesies Bundle, the 50 most owned investments on Sharesies, with GameStop (GME) and AMC Entertainment as the top movers.

Sharesies said in the report that for the first quarter in two years, meme stocks like GME and AMC had grabbed media attention and attracted more investors on the Sharesies platform. 

However, much of the heightened activity stemmed from existing investors who saw substantial gains as stock prices surged—GameStop by 126% and AMC by 67% between May and June. 

Despite the buzz, Sharesies investor holdings in AMC Entertainment and GameStop Corp remain limited, with less than 2% of Sharesies investors currently invested in these stocks.

Improved confidence

The index aggregates anonymised data of over half a million Sharesies users and ranks confidence levels on a scale of 0 to 100, based on various metrics like buying/selling ratios and investment preferences.

Sharesies reported a jump in average investor confidence from April to June, marking a 13-point rise compared to the previous quarter (January to March). 

This boost pushed the confidence index to 45 out of 100, reaching the ‘balanced’ category for the first time in over a year.

“Strong net deposits, growing buy to sell ratios and record trading combined to end the quarter with the Sharesies Index at 45,” Sharesies' report said.

Sharesies' net buy/sell ratio for the June quarter averaged 1.17, fluctuating between 0.97 and 1.31. This figure represents an increase from the 0.96 average observed in the March quarter.

This rise in June indicated that retail investors were continuing to buy to grow their investments, according to Sharesies.

The platform’s net buy/sell ratio measures the gap between total buying and selling activity. A ratio above one signals buying surpasses selling, suggesting confidence among investors. 

Sharesies net deposit ratio – which measures the flow of funds into and out of Sharesies' invest and save products – was up from the previous two quarters, averaging 1.5 in the June quarter.

In the last two weeks of the June quarter, Sharesies saw the highest Net Deposit Ratios of 2024: 1.98 and 1.86 respectively. 

Williams said this meant for every dollar taken out from the platform, almost two dollars were deposited back. She put this down to people seeing more positivity in their portfolios plus showing more interest in the stock market again.

Over 33,000 customers joined Sharesies in the June quarter.

Sharesies manages over $3 billion in funds and has over 650,000 users across NZ and Australia. 

The platform invests in over 8,000 companies and funds which span five exchanges in the US, Australia, and New Zealand, with no minimum investment requirement.