KUALA LUMPUR: Tesla Inc is the most popular choice of stock among Malaysian investors on social trading platform eToro.
A 19 per cent increase in trading activity last month had pushed Tesla from fourth to first place, eToro said in a statement today.
Previous March number one, Walt Disney, swapped places with Tesla at fourth after Malaysian investors' interest eased 21 per cent, while Facebook was down a notch to third as trading activity declined 11 per cent.
eToro senior market analyst Nemo Qin said investors preferred to invest in consumer staples or dividend aristocrats than other sectors during the economic downturn.
"However, it seems that the interest in the technology sector has not only remained, but technology stocks have increased in popularity among investors during the pandemic.
"I believe that the popularity and high demand for technology investment will remain for the rest of the year," Qin said.
He said technology stocks were popular among investors as these companies have successful business models or healthy financial statuses, allowing them to continue supporting the company development and business operations.
"People are spending more time on technology products, be it using streaming services, e-commerce, video games, online fitness, e-Learning, and working from home – and many technology companies, such as Netflix and Zoom, are recognizing these trends and seizing these opportunities to generate more income and revenue," he added.
According to eToro new data, nine out of the top 10 invested stocks by Malaysians were technology companies last month.
These included Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Facebook,Walt Disney, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Alibaba, Microsoft and Google.
EToro said AMD remains a popular stock in April with a 114 per cent increase in trading, putting it at second place from ninth in March.
This was because investors realised that amid the stay-at-home economy, there would be a surge in demand for the company's central processing units and graphics processing units used in laptops and data centres, eToro said.