ECM Libra Investment Bank has launched an online stock trading portal, ecmmoney.com, hoping to reach more retail investors across the country through the Internet.

Chief operating officer Martin Chu said this is a faster way to expand, and cheaper compared to setting up of branches in various locations to cover the market.

ECM Libra has about 10,000 active retail customers with RM15 billion traded volume last year. Of this total, 18 per cent of customers trade online, according to the response in the past six months after its soft launch, Chu said.

The portal houses four products, namely cash upfront, collaterised, DayTrading88 and Premier88.

"The portal offers the lowest brokerage of 0.05 per cent or a minimum fee of RM8 per contract during the promotion period. After that it will be 0.08 per cent or RM12 per contract," Chu told reporters in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

In the case of DayTrading88, investors will pay brokerage fee only when profits are made per stock traded during the day, he said.

As for Premier88, investors with balance of RM30,000 and above in their account will be guaranteed five free trades every month.