In China, FOMO is swelling the ranks of retail investors chasing the next big winners amid world-beating stock rally

Growth in new stock account openings at major brokerages exceeded 30 per cent in June from a month earlier, according to media reports

Morgan Stanley says that the stock run-up has more legs, as proprietary sentiment index is still far from a level that signals trend reversal

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People wearing masks walk by a bronze sculpture of a bull in the central business district in Beijing on March 14, 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 11:10am, 10 Jul 2020Updated: 10:13pm, 10 Jul 2020

China’s individual investors account for 70 per cent of stock transactions across the nation exchanges. That much-vaunted army of traders is getting bigger and more influential amid a world-beating stock market rally.

Retail investors are rushing to open new trading accounts as the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index chalked up 13 per cent gain so far this month, according to local media reports. The rally has added almost 7 billion yuan (US$1 billion) in market value this week alone, besting all major global bourses, and stretching a bull run over the past 15 month. Brokers like Citic Securities are among the pacers.

Jeggie Liu, a 40-year old interior designer in Shanghai, is among the millions of rookies swept up by the fear of missing out on the windfall. She is planning to open her own account at China Merchants Securities.

“It’s a bull market and it’s a good opportunity to make some quick bucks,” she said earlier this week. “I really do not want to miss the boat.”

China has already added 6.44 million new traders in the first five months of the year, according to data published by China Securities Depository and Clearing, more than the population of Singapore and just shy of the size in Hong Kong. Home-bound in various stages of pandemic lockdown, they boosted the number to 166 million at the end of May, making them the single biggest collection of individual investors.

In China, FOMO is swelling the ranks of retail investors chasing the next big winners amid world-beating stock rally

Growth in new stock account openings at major brokerages exceeded 30 per cent in June from a month earlier, according to media reports Morgan Stanley says that the stock run-up has more legs, as proprietary sentiment index is still far from a level that signals trend reversal

Growth in new stock account openings at major brokerages exceeded 30 per cent in June from a month earlier, according to media reports

Morgan Stanley says that the stock run-up has more legs, as proprietary sentiment index is still far from a level that signals trend reversal