Strong US markets boost Hatch to over $50m in investments

Hatch, Kiwi Wealth’s new digital investing platform that offers direct access to the US share markets, has passed $50 million in investments since launching late last year.

On track for its best calendar-year performance since 2013, the relative strength of the S&P 500 index comprised of large-cap US companies has given Hatch a boost in sign-ups and investments. It has marched steadily higher throughout 2019 and is returning over 28% in gains since the start of the year.

Just 65 shares in the S&P 500 were down for the year while 374 were up at least 10%. AMD, Xerox, Lam Research, and Chipotle Mexican Grill are the index’s best performers, all up more than 88% for 2019. The tech sector is also up more than 30% in 2019 with tech giants Apple and Microsoft both up about 77% and 52% respectively.*

Reflecting on the growth in investments, Hatch co-founder and general manager Kristen Lunman said “2019 is shaping up to be a great year for investing, and Kiwis are getting on board with technology investments. Big Tech features heavily in the top 10 for most volume of investment this year including Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook. Other popular tech investments include AMD, Nvidia, and streaming companies Netflix and Disney.,” Lunman said.

“Tesla is the most popular share on Hatch, and together with Beyond Meat and Berkshire Hathaway, it tells me that Kiwis are investing in pioneering movements or visionary leaders shaping our future and they are happy to invest for the long term.”

Joe Bishop, Kiwi Wealth's General Manager for Customer, Product and Innovation said Hatch’s success is proof that investors want an easy, intuitive and cost-effective way to buy and sell shares in the biggest market and the biggest companies in the world, without the higher costs of traditional brokerages.

“We are thrilled with how Hatch has performed since its launch and that is also a testament to the team who are continually developing and improving the platform and work directly with investors to assess what they want from Hatch,” said Bishop.

While Hatch investors were generally skewed younger, with around two-thirds under the age of 40, there was a wide variance in the amounts individual investors were trading.

“We have investors whose balances are less than $1,000, right the way through to six-figure sums,” Lunman said.

The most popular exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for Hatch investors are technology-focused ETFs tracking the Nasdaq 100 - 100 category-defining companies on the forefront of innovation, the S&P 500, Blue-chip ETFs, and commodity ETFs tracking Gold and Silver said Lunman.

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