Margin loan account numbers stuck at record lows

The number of investors operating margin loan accounts has not moved from the ten-year low recorded at the end of last year.

According to the latest Reserve Bank margin lending figures, there were 147,000 margin loan accounts in the March quarter, unchanged from the December quarter and 3.9 per cent down from the March quarter last year.

Account balances fell during the quarter - down from A$11.8 billion in the December quarter to $11.7 billion in March. Year-on-year balances were up 0.4 per cent.

Good news for investors was that the rate of margin calls was low, falling from 1.08 calls per 1000 clients per day in the December quarter to 0.35 per 1000 clients per day in the March quarter.