China retail investors scramble back to the stock market: ‘I don’t want to miss the boat’
Individual investors from China have scurried back to buy risky shares, but historically, wild swings in sentiment have foreshadowed plunges
While there is no official data on retail buying, some anecdotal evidence shows that the nation’s pool of more than 200 million investors – the largest cohort of its kind globally and a bit smaller than the population of Brazil – were chasing returns from a run that drove China’s benchmark up by more than 20 per cent in the final week of September.
Joy Yang, a 47-year-old executive at a pharmaceutical company in Shanghai, bought stocks before the weeklong holiday that started on Tuesday. In her first foray into equity investment since a US$5 trillion market meltdown in 2015, she bought property developers and exchange-traded funds after seeking tips from friends.
“Everyone is buying stocks now and that’s becoming a nationwide phenomenon,” she said. “Why not buy some stocks now? I don’t want to miss the boat.”