Pedestrians walk past a stocks display board in Hong Kong on Aug 26, 2019. (LILIAN SUWANRUMPHA / AFP)

Magpie Securities is the latest global financial technology firm to harvest the large number of technology-savvy retail investors in Hong Kong to push forward their global business expansion plans.

Magpie Securities, the securities firm owned by Nasdaq-listed fintech company MICT Inc, launched on Tuesday the share-trading app Magpie Invest, which enables Hong Kong retail investors to trade shares in seven stock markets.

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These markets are the Nasdaq Stock Market, the New York Stock Exchange, the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the London Stock Exchange, the Paris Stock Exchange and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Customers can now download the Magpie Invest app on their iOS or Android devices from both the Apple Store and Google Play store

The app later will connect more markets, with those from Australia, Japan, and Switzerland soon to be added to the trading list. Clients can trade 18 hours nonstop in a day with Magpie Invest.

Customers can now download the Magpie Invest app on their iOS or Android devices from both the Apple Store and Google Play store.

“Magpie’s presence in Hong Kong is a key strategic move to setting its footprint in the global stock market, which is essential for its long-term business interests,” said Darren Mercer, chief executive officer of MICT Inc. and non-executive chairman of Magpie Securities.

Mercer added that the MICT has injected HK$500 million (US$64.3 million) to support Magpie Securities’ business growth, and plans to inject additional capital so as to always offer competitive levels of margin financing at competitive rates.

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MICT has access to the capital markets that provides capital as needed to support the growth of Magpie Securities. MICT currently has US$114 million cash.

 “The parent company also has reserved HK$250 million for Magpie Securities to embark talent recruitment and app trading technology upgrades,” Magpie Securities CEO Richard Abrahams said. “Hong Kong has a very large number of well-educated retail investors who are experienced users of stock trading apps, which makes it a perfect market to launch Magpie’s new business.”

He said he expects the number of clients using the share trading app to be in six digits within the next year.

Besides the share trading function, Magpie Securities has teamed up with news sources MT Newswires and Zhitong Finance, and established its global networks of journalists to provide more information to app users.