Those in younger generations appear to have far less interest in investing than their elders as stability is increasingly cherished and confidence in China’s future growth has slackened. The former office worker, now 73, can practically hear the shouts and feel the heat from those heady times in the early 1990s, when sweat-drenched crowds packed into securities firms like sardines to yell their picks at weary traders.
Those in younger generations, meanwhile, appear to have far less interest in investing than their elders as stability is increasingly cherished and confidence in China’s future growth has slackened. Though the share values they hold are relatively low – per the most recent statistics released by the Shanghai Stock Exchange, about a quarter of total value as of the end of 2021 – they still have a great impact on the market.
In their annual poll of people with yearly incomes between 125,000 and 1 million yuan, only 17.3 per cent of the 18 to 24 age group stated they own stocks this year, compared to 26.6 per cent in 2021. “Someone warned me online that picking up plastic bottles is more profitable than buying stocks,” Hu wrote in a recent Weibo post. Despite his losses, he is still providing updates on his experience, which he said will let him “feel the Chinese economy better”.
“It’s the dividend of time,” he said, “as the Chinse economy rose with reform and opening-up. But it’s certainly not the case now.”Stimulus or bust: Investors staying out of China until the spending starts “Their returns have dropped as well, but at least I won’t lose my initial investment, so I sleep soundly at night,” he said. “If I have spare time, I’d rather spend it playing online games.”