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The retail share investors of today are more active and sophisticated than ever before, according to the 2006 Australian Share Ownership Study (the ‘Study’) released today by the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
In 2006, approximately 7.3 million people, or 46% of the Australian population aged 18-years or more, participated in the Australian share market, either directly via shares or indirectly via a managed fund or self-managed superannuation fund. In terms of direct share ownership, 6 million people or 38% of the Australian population were direct investors.
The Study was conducted nationally in November 2006 among a randomly selected sample of 2,405 adult Australians. It highlights the incidence of share ownership among the population and offers insights into the investment behaviour and attitudes of retail investors towards the share market. This is the tenth Study in a series dating back to 1991.
Today’s retail share investors are trading more often (8 trades per annum in 2006 against 7 in 2004 and 6 in 2003) and in larger average parcels ($14,200 in 2006 against $11,150 in 2004 and $10,650 in 2003).
Today’s retail share investors also demonstrate greater sophistication. More investors own overseas shares and they have more companies, on average, in their portfolios (9 in 2006 compared to 6 in 2004 and 7 in 2003). They are now more likely to include a mixture of large and small companies across a variety of sectors.
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