China’s stock accounts top 160 million, equal to world’s ninth-largest population, outpacing Communist Party’s membership
- China had about 160 million equity traders by the end of January, according to the country’s central clearing house
- That would make China’s army of stock traders the world’s ninth-largest population – ahead of Russia and just shy of Bangladesh
China’s capitalists expanded in ranks last year, as the number of registered stock investors outgrew the Communist Party’s membership for the fifth year, attracted by the government’s economic stimulus policies and the prospects of a detente in the year-long trade war with the United States.
The country’s registered A-share accounts increased by 8.8 per cent last year to 160.6 million as of January, according to the China Securities Depositary and Clearing Corporation (CSDC), the central clearing house for the stocks industry. That would make China’s stock traders the world’s ninth-largest population if they were a nation, ahead of Russia’s population and just shy of the number of people in Bangladesh.
“The outlook for the stock market is bullish, even if the market needs a little time to recover” from the current coronavirus outbreak, said Xun Yugen, a strategist at Haitong Securities in Shanghai. “If the epidemic is put under control, economic activities will resume in March. Corporate earnings growth is expected to accelerate in the coming quarters” as the government turns on the taps with favourable policies to stimulate the economy, he said.
China added 800,000 accounts for trading yuan-denominated A shares every month from November to January, taking the 2019 increment to 13 million, or an increase of 8.8 per cent from the previous year.