US technology companies attracted the highest trading volumes among investors worldwide in 2020, including the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, Saxo Bank reported.
The Copenhagen-based investment bank said strict lockdowns and the need for employees to work from home due to the coronavirus pandemic have positively impacted the most actively traded US tech companies, with their indexes up more than 40 percent for 2020.
Boeing, Facebook, Zoom Video Communications, Alibaba and Moderna stocks were the most traded in the GCC region this year, according to Saxo.
Tesla, Apple, Nio, Microsoft and Amazon were Saxo’s most traded stocks in the world in 2020, with over 646 percent of value market growth for Tesla and over 67 percent for Amazon.
“This year was all about the online vs offline world,” said Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo. “Technology companies were catapulted into the future by the COVID-19 pandemic, while many physical industries such as aviation, travel, leisure, hospitality and automobiles came under significant pressure due to the severe restrictions and lockdowns.”
Nio — the Chinese Tesla — had astonishing grown this year with a 1,069 percent surge, meaning that electric-vehicle companies were the best performers in 2020.
Specialized in online trading and investment, Saxo said investors worldwide are turning to financial markets as net buyers following the March global stock market crash.
The pandemic has amplified the participation rate of retail investors in equity markets, a trend that was already underway before COVID-19 and mainly driven by younger people, Saxo said.
The growing trend created a new environment that has made it more difficult for traditional institutional investors to navigate.
Saxo has been focusing on enabling clients in Saudi Arabia and the wider GCC region to trade using its platform, and has recently launched a dedicated Arabic website as part of its latest drive to encourage more Middle Eastern retailers and investors.