Most weeks, Commonwealth Bank of Australia's (ASX: CBA) CommSec brokering platform tells us the international shares (which are almost always US shares) that are the most popular with its customers, along with the most popular ASX shares.
CommSec is one of the largest online brokers in the country. As such, this data can be a nice gauge of general investing trends in our market. This week's data covers 7-11 December.
So here are the top 10 United States shares CommSec customers were buying last week:
Most traded US shares on the ASX
- Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) – representing 9% of total trades with a 77%/23% buy-to-sell ratio.
- Nio Inc (NYSE: NIO) – representing 2.9% of total trades with an 80%/20% buy-to-sell ratio.
- AirBnB Inc (NASDAQ: ABNB) – representing 2.4% of total trades with a 97%/3% buy-to-sell ratio.
- Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) – representing 2.3% of total trades with a 69%/31% buy-to-sell ratio.
- Palantir Technologies Inc (NYSE: PLTR) – representing 1.5% of total trades with an 83%/17% buy-to-sell ratio.
The next five most traded shares were these:
- Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE)
- Xpeng Inc (NYSE: XPEV)
- Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT)
- Moderna Inc (NASDAQ: MRNA)
- Zoom Video Communications Inc (NASDAQ: ZM)
What can we learn from these trades?
Well, a notable inclusion this week is AirBnB, which had a very publicised initial public offering (IPO) last week (meaning AirBnB launched on the share market for the first time). AirBnB shares rocketed as high as 142.6% at one point on IPO day, surging past the opening price of US$68. The following day, the shares climbed as high as US$165, but have since cooled somewhat and last traded for US$130 per share a the time of writing.
AirBnB is one of those 'unicorn' businesses, similar to Uber Technologies Inc (NYSE: UBER), that people right around the world have become familiar with long before they achieved 'public company' status. As such, these IPOs often attract a lot of attention. AirBnB was evidently no different, including for Aussie investors. We can see this on CommSec's list, where it usurped the No.3 spot last week.
In other news, electric car/battery manufacturers Tesla and Nio seem to be unstoppable. These 2 companies have been swapping the top positions with each other for most of the year, with Tesla stealing back much of the interest last week. That might have had something to do with Tesla's upcoming inclusion in the S&P 500 Index (SP: .INX), or perhaps Tesla shares appreciating more than 56% in the past month alone. Tesla trades were almost as popular as those of the other top 5 stocks combined, which says something.
Notably, only one of the famous 'FAANG' stocks made the top ten at all – Apple. It seems ASX investors are losing their appetite for Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook, at least for now. And almost a third of Apple trades were 'sells' (far more than the others).
