Families turning to realty as bourses lose luster, says survey

The proportion of Chinese households that have reaped profits from the stock market dropped significantly in the second quarter amid the market turmoil, a survey showed on Thursday.

The stock market pessimism has also led families to adopt an increasingly bullish view about the country's property market, said the survey conducted by the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu, capital city of Sichuan province.

Only 40.5 percent of the surveyed families said they made profits by trading stocks as of June 26 while the figure is 78.3 percent before the market peaked on June 12.

"The ratio will continue to drop if the market correction deepens," the survey said.

About 50 million households were surveyed by the university on a national basis between June 15 and July 2.

A total of 37 million households, or 8.8 percent of total families in the country, traded stocks in the second quarter this year, according to the survey.

In a market where 80 percent of trading volume was made by retail investors, government action to prop up the market should focus on protecting the interests of small investors, the survey said.

Meanwhile, the survey found that family wealth begun to flow out of the stock market to the property market.

The trend was in reverse between the third quarter last year and the first quarter this year, during which the stock market gained more than 100 percent.

Most surveyed families said they became increasingly pessimistic about the stock market and adopted a bullish view toward the property market with anticipation of improved housing price.

"The reversing trend is becoming clear and it could be a factor that pushes the housing price higher in the future," the survey said.

More families that traded stocks began to buy houses with the proportion rising from 2.3 percent in the first quarter to 3.7 percent in the second quarter.

The number of new stock trading accounts in Shanghai and Shenzhen markets also declined, according to the survey.