According to the survey update, carried out in November 2000, the proportion of Australian adults involved in the share market at that time, through either direct shareholdings or indirectly via a managed fund, was 52% (compared with 54% in the previous survey). The proportion with direct shareholdings was 40% (4 1 %).
Based on a population of 14.2 million adults, the number of Australians owning shares therefore remained little changed at an estimated 5.7 million adults with direct share ownership, and 7.4 million adults with direct and/or indirect share ownership (previously 7.6 million).
However, while overall levels of ownership were sirnilar to the previous survey, there has been considerable turnover in the share ownership market.
A significant proportion of direct shareowners (I 1%) indicated they had bought shares for the first time in the previous 12 months. Of these 600,000 adults, ASX estimates that up to 500,000 had entered the market via the NRMA demutualisation. Over the same period a similar number of shareholders divested their equity portfolios.
The demographics of share ownership have also shifted slightly, women now accounting for almost half the number of direct shareholders. As at November, women made up 47% of direct shareholders, and 36% of all women were direct shareholders.
In contrast, the incidence of direct share ownership among men appeared to ease from 45% to 41%. The incidence of direct share ownership had also declined slightly among younger adults, with those aged under-35 more likely to have divested in the past 12 months than older investors.
The proportion of investors in metropolitan and regional areas remained very similar, and has also remained relatively stable across income groups, since the previous survey.
Major floats and demutualisations have dominated the share market in recent years, and the survey highlighted investors' tendency to remain with these companies. The overwhelming majority of investors (84%) who received NRMA shares kept all of them. Similarly, the overwhelming majority of participants in the Telstra2 (T2) float have retained their shares. Most T2 investors said they would increase their participation in the wider market in future.
While the survey update confirmed the extent of Australian investors' involvement in the share market, it also highlighted that many investors' engagement with the market remained relatively passive. About half of all direct shareowners hold only one or two stocks in their portfolio, and about the same proportion had not traded in the previous 12 months.
Full details of the Shareownership Survey Update can be obtained through the ASX website www.asx.com-au
