China's super-rich confident of going it alone in investing: survey

High-net-worth mainlanders are the biggest financial risk-takers in the world, with nearly all of them confident they can manage their investments and reach their financial goals, according to a survey by US asset manager Legg Mason and Citibank.

The finding adds to evidence that buying euphoria by individual investors is the major driving force in the stock market rally, which has come despite regulators warning of a bust.

"Chinese investors perennially appear to take the most active stance towards the markets," Freeman Tsang, head of China and Hong Kong businesses at Legg Mason, said on Tuesday. The survey covered more than 4,200 affluent investors across 20 markets, including 250 mainlanders with an average net worth of US$2.5 million. The mainlanders were the most optimistic investors, with about 60 per cent of them planning to increase their equities this year.

The survey found that 93 per cent of respondents from the mainland said they could manage their own investments and 89 per cent were confident that they could meet their financial goals.

In Hong Kong, just 65 per cent of wealthy investors said they could manage their own equity investments, with 61 per cent saying they would work with a financial advisor to allocate their assets.

The mainland's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index has been on a bull run since November as retail investors have gravitated to the A-share market despite the weak fundamentals.