SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Discount broker Charles Schwab Corp. said Tuesday that its average trading levels fell 8 percent in January compared with last year, but the company's asset base rose 4 percent as it brought in new business.
Schwab said Tuesday that its total client assets were a record $1.74 trillion at the end of January, up 4 percent from December and up 9 percent from the same time last year. The asset base was boosted by new business, with $7.1 billion in assets brought to the company during the month from new and existing clients. The number of active brokerage accounts rose 7 percent to nearly 8.6 million, from just over 8 million a year ago.
The increase in assets was offset by a decline in trades. There were a little more than 468,000 client daily average trades in the month. That's down 8 percent from the year before, but up 8 percent from December.
The company attributed part of the year-over-year decline to the absence of a seasonal uptick in transactions involving its Schwab Mutual Fund OneSource product. A Schwab spokesman said that last year more investors rebalanced their mutual funds as 2011 got underway, which generated more trading activity. This year, fewer investors chose to do that, although the reasons varied for different traders.
Shares of Charles Schwab rose 2 cents to close at $12.34. The stock has ranged from $10.56 to $19.69 in the past 52 weeks.
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