A surge of enthusiasm from Asia is creating a 24-hour retail market for US-listed companies, underscoring New York’s position as the world’s home for share trading. US brokers and trading platforms say activity in the so-called overnight period between 8pm and 4am eastern time has risen sharply this year, driven by demand from smaller investors in Asia and Europe.
The shift comes after the benchmark S&P 500 rose by almost a quarter this year, and closes in on its all-time high, and the US continues to pull in initial public offerings from companies around the world. A total of 40.6mn shares worth $405mn changed hands on Blue Ocean Technologies in a record session earlier this month, while its 28mn average so far for December is 55 times its level a year earlier. Blue Ocean is the main regulated trading venue for individual US stocks overnight. “The world changed with the pandemic and with crypto trading 24-seven. Everybody has the infrastructure and the support to handle trading overnight now,” said Brian Hyndman, chief executive of Blue Ocean, which went live in June 202