China retail investors scramble back to the stock market: ‘I don’t want to miss the boat’

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.”