Ticker Talk

Datek Online Holdings Corp. said its number of accounts and trades per day advanced last month--a sign that at least one Internet-based brokerage is rebounding from last year’s stock market plunge. Trades at the fourth-largest online broker rose 8% to 117,695 a day, compared with 108,555 in January 2000. The firm’s trading rose 6% from December.

Still, the rise in Datek’s trading from December was “at the lower end” of a 6% to 10% range expected by Putnam Lovell Securities analyst Richard Repetto. His expectation stemmed partly from the Nasdaq composite index’s 12% rebound last month.

Datek in December was bought by a group of private investors for $700 million. The new owners have stepped up TV advertising to recruit new customers. Datek has also been helped by existing customers, many of whom are more experienced than those of other online brokers and therefore are more able to stomach the market’s gyrations, some analysts said.