The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) has published the second edition of its quarterly Retail Investor Dashboard.
A few figures:
- 76,000 Belgian retail investors traded ETFs during the fourth quarter of 2024, a record number, up nearly 25% on the previous quarter.
- During the three last months of 2024, 16,000, 19,000 and 5,000 Belgian retail investors traded for the first time in listed shares, ETFs or bonds respectively. After stabilizing earlier in the year, the number of new investors was back on the rise.
- Belgian retail investors together carried out over one million equity transactions in the last quarter of 2024. In one year, the quarterly number of ETF transactions rose by over 80% to reach the 207,000 mark.
- Half of new investors choose equities as their first investment, while just over a third prefer ETFs.
- A little over 40% of the total value of equities traded by Belgian retail investors was in North American shares. This is the highest percentage recorded in the last five years.