Yu Fengying works in the busy sales department of a Beijing securities company, where she normally dispenses advice to mom and dad investors on how to get the best returns from the stock market.
On Aug. 24, she sat and listened to the heartfelt grievances of a stream of clients. That day was "Black Monday" for the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets, when the Shanghai composite index plunged by 8.49 percent, hitting an eight-year low. "They just needed to give vent to their pain," she says.
China's A share market fell 14.34 percent in July, the biggest monthly fall since 2009. According to China Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation Ltd., the total book value of China' s individual stock investors had shrunk by 7.3 trillion yuan from June 12 to the end of September.
Yu has been working in securities for more than 20 years, almost since the birth of China' s stock market. At the end of 1990, the Shenzhen and Shanghai stock exchanges opened, starting a quarter century of a fear and ecstasy for individual investors.
At the crest of a booming market, the number of Chinese stockholders peaked in May this year, surpassing 100 million.
But in mid-June, after hitting a peak of 5178.19, the Shanghai composite index fell by 1500 in a fortnight. "Many investors were devastated," Yu says.
Blind faith
From Beijing' s Financial Street, known as China' s "Wall Street", the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) stepped into the eye of the storm and began measures to stabilize the market. It issued a statement on Aug. 7, hinting that investors were being irrational.
The disruptions of 1996, 2000 and 2007 still linger in Wang Ping' s memory, "but this fall is unprecedented," she says. "Many of my friends had no time to get out and they were trapped." She recouped about 90 percent of her investment on stocks that are now worth less than 30 percent of what she paid.
The 45-year-old housewife has seen the dangers of China' s financial markets -- the worst being "the panic pandemic" . In her circle, housewives discussed "malicious short selling" and other ominous terms as many of them sold up.
Individual investors are estimated to account for 85 percent of turnover in China' s A share market, but only 27 percent of its market value.
Yu sees the stock market rout as a combination of panic selling by individual shareholders and institutional behavior such as forced liquidations and malicious short selling.
Jin Wei (Alias) has been investing since 1990, but now she is pressing her son to sell all his stocks. "Playing with securities is too time-consuming for young people," she says. "My experience over the past 20 years shows that the return on stocks is scarcely more than that of savings." She believes her trading has been futile. "How unfortunate," she sighs.
