Trading by Schwab's clients increased 3% in November

Charles Schwab Corp., the biggest discount broker by customer assets, said client trades rose by 3 percent in November from October as investors returned to the stock market in its eighth consecutive month of gains.

Schwab's 7.7 million customers made an average of 161,400 trades a day last month, the highest since September 2001 and up from 156,000 in October, the San Francisco-based company said. Customers' commission trades have risen slightly in December, and Schwab is "comfortable" with analysts' consensus estimate that it will earn 11 cents a share this quarter, its chief financial officer, Christopher Dodds, said.

"All of the fundamental indicators are showing strength or improvement," said Dodds, noting that Schwab customers also bought $1.7 billion of equity mutual fund shares last quarter.

The company continued to benefit from stock trading as the Standard & Poor's 500 Index has gained 22 percent this year and the Nasdaq Composite Index 43 percent, said Richard Repetto, an analyst at Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP.

Schwab opened 41,200 new accounts in November and added $4.3 billion of new customer assets, its highest since individual investors began increasing their online trades, which make up the bulk of Schwab's trading, when the market began reversing three years of losses in March.