Our stock market romance is alive
Published in the Herald Sun, May 2011
By Karina Barrymore
Australia's love affair with the share market is hotting up again but it's still a long way from its peak passions.
About 43 per cent, or 7.3 million, adult Australians invest in shares according to the latest survey by the Australian Securities Exchange, an increase from the 41 per cent recorded in the previous survey, taken two years ago.
However, the results remain well below the 55 per cent, about eight million, of Australians who owned shares in 2004.
The biggest change between the latest survey and Australia's peak share ownership is the surge in people doing it for themselves.
Shareholders are turning away from managed funds, including managed superannuation, and are instead buying, selling and holding shares directly.
Despite the fall from its peak, Australia still ranked among the top share-owning countries in the world, second only to the US, ASX research manager Sandra Boyd-Hoare said yesterday.
Other highlights of the survey included a shift in the type of advice people seek before making a purchase, as both online trading and full service broking declines.
The survey also found that 26 per cent of shareholders said they were likely to buy more shares in the next 12 months, while a clear majority - 62 per cent - said they would not.
Of all Aussie shareholders, 70 per cent directly own their shares, 21 per cent own them both directly and through a managed fund and 9 per cent own them only through a managed fund. This compares with 60 per cent direct, in the previous survey, 27 per cent with both ownership options and 12 per cent managed funds only.
"The growth in direct ownership has come at the expense of indirect shares and I think the main reasons driving that are the transparency that trading directly on the market provides and the confidence people have in our market regulation," Ms Boyd-Hoare said.
"Post-global financial crisis, the change is that people are not delegating their financial decision making. They're becoming more actively involved and more self-reliant," she said.
Fund manager Wealth Within analyst Dale Gillham said the number of shareholders was still down 21 per cent on its peak in 2006 but the survey did show investors were starting to return to the market.
