Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
For a third month in a row, share-trading volumes on the Toronto Stock Exchange are jumping. It's time to call it a trend.
The first two months of the year showed significant gains in trading and financing on Canadian equity markets. But it was a bit early to say that the rebound from a long period of decline was a full-on trend.
March shows that the pickup is still gaining traction. TMX Group Inc., the owner of the TSX, said Thursday that trading volume on the exchange rose 11 per cent from March 2013. Year-to-date trading volumes are now 9.4 per cent higher than the first three months of last year.
On the small-cap TSX Venture Exchange, year-to-date gains are even bigger, with an increase of 12.4 per cent in volume. March alone showed a huge 26-per-cent jump from March, 2013.
The effects of this will be most strongly felt among the smaller brokerages in Canada that depend on trading Canadian stocks for a significant chunk of revenue. After a struggle to get through the past two years, the increased volumes will start to ease pressure on the bottom line.