Online brokerage shares in Asia hit jackpot in global retail mania

The growing retail frenzy has sent many stocks through the roof this year, from the most-shorted US names to anything silver related. But away from the chat rooms there’s another winner: online brokerage shares.

Shenzhen-based Futu Holdings Ltd. has surged 156% already this year and Singapore-listed iFast Corp more than doubled. In South Korea, Kiwoom Securities Co. is up more than 18%. The moves have crushed the performance of a Bloomberg index of the region’s institutional brokerage firms, which is up just 1% over the same period.

The strong performance of this pocket of the market comes amid a rapid increase in the number of young retail investors. More than 50% of Futu’s new users are from the post-1990s generation and more than half are first-time investors, Citigroup Inc. analysts including Daphne Poon noted last week, citing a survey from the brokerage.