Saxo Bank, the leading Fintech specialist focused on multi-asset trading and investment, has revealed the most traded stock by its UAE-based clients in Q1, with GameStop mania seeing the video game distributor edge major technology brands including Tesla, Nio, Apple and Amazon during a three-month period defined by frenetic options trading, shares sold short and chat room wars.
“Global equities continued the upward momentum in the first quarter amid increased volatility, which was especially evident in several heavily shorted stocks in the beginning of the year, such as GameStop and AMC,” said Peter Garnry, Head of Equity Strategy at Saxo Bank. “Many of these names continue to attract retail interest although some of the hype seems to have faded. We continuously encourage investors to be cautious and closely monitor risk when trading in these stocks with unprecedented high volatility.”
Tesla ranked second amongst Saxo Bank’s UAE-based traders, with Garnry adding: “Tesla remains a popular stock with our clients and the increasing competition is somewhat at odds with the current valuation of the Tesla, but the company continues to surprise with Q1 delivery numbers at 170,000 vehicles above analysts’ estimates. This was particularly driven by a big uptake in Model Y sales in China which fueled short-term momentum in Tesla’s share price. However, Tesla’s free cash flow generation remains stretched given the rise in competition which will be the long-term theme for investors to watch.”
With the global market leaning towards a more reflationary environment, Garnry urged investors to increase their exposure to the commodity sector and high-quality companies with low debt leverage: “The rising interest rates are likely to create a downward adjustment of equity valuations in the most speculative growth segments such as bubble stocks, e-commerce, gaming, green transformation, and next-generation medicine stocks. This is also why we see a rotation into cyclical sectors that will benefit from the economic recovery and a reflationary environment,” he said.
Across the GCC, Saxo Bank reported the same top five traded stocks with GameStop, Tesla and Nio the top three stocks. Amazon and Apple swapped their UAE rankings to finish fourth and fifth, respectively.
About The Saxo Bank Group:
Saxo Bank connects people to investment opportunities in global capital markets. As a provider of multi-asset trading and investment, Saxo’s vision is to enable people to fulfil their financial aspirations and make an impact. Saxo’s user-friendly and personalised platform experience gives investors exactly what they need, when they need it, no matter if they want to actively trade global markets or invest into their future.
Founded in 1992, Saxo Bank was one of the first financial institutions to develop an online trading platform that provided private investors with the same tools and market access as professional traders, large institutions and fund managers. Saxo combines an agile fintech mindset with close to 30 years of experience and track record in global capital markets to deliver a state-of-the-art experience to clients. The Saxo Bank Group holds four banking licenses and is well regulated globally. Saxo offers clients around the world broad access to global capital markets across asset classes where they can trade more than 40,000 instruments in over 25 languages from one single margin account. The Saxo Bank Group also powers more than 120 financial institutions as partners by boosting the investment experience they can offer their clients via its open banking technology.
Headquartered in Copenhagen, Saxo Bank’s client assests total more than $80.4 billion and the company has more than 2,200 financial and technology professionals in financial centers around the world including London, Singapore, Amsterdam, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Paris, Zurich, Dubai and Tokyo.
