Brokerages operate 24-hour support desks for overseas trading during Lunar New Year

Gettyimagesbank

By Anna J. Park

Most major securities companies have decided to operate a support desk for their customers' foreign stock trading open 24 hours a day throughout the Lunar New Year long weekend, from Saturday to next Tuesday. Firms expect the demand for trading foreign stocks will rise higher, as local stock markets will be closed next Monday and Tuesday due to the holiday.

Some other Asian stock markets will be closed during the period as well. China's stock markets will be closed for five days from Monday to Friday next week, while Hong Kong's markets will close for three days from Monday to Wednesday. Singapore's markets will close for two days on Monday and Tuesday, just like Korea's, and Vietnam's markets will close for four days from Monday to Thursday. Indonesian stock markets will be closed only on Monday.

But while these Asian stock markets will be closed for the holiday, other major countries' stock markets will be operating as usual, including the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and most European stock markets.

Data from the Korea Securities Depository showed that retail traders bought $5.13 billion of foreign stocks during last year's Lunar New Year, which is a 13.4 percent increase from the previous year's holiday.

Seeing this growth in foreign stock trading, brokerage companies are preparing for customers who will likely flock to foreign stock markets over the long weekend. Korea Investment, Shinhan Securities, Daishin Securities, Mirae Asset Securities and Meritz Securities will operate 24-hour support systems during the holiday. Retail traders can use their home trading system (HTS), mobile trading system (MTS) or phone service. Institutional investors can use a telephone service to trade foreign stocks in real time.

Customers at most of these major securities firms do not need to exchange their Korean won for U.S. dollars in advance to trade American stocks, as the companies offer automatic currency exchange. Mirae Asset, in particular, provides a day market service which allows retail customers to trade starting from 10 a.m. Korea time.