Australia leads world into the share market
Australia has the highest proportion of share ownership in the world with more than half of the nation's adults now investing in the stock market, according to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX).
Australia has the highest proportion of share ownership in the world with more than half of the nation's adults now investing in the stock market, according to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX).
A record 142 new floats on the market in 1999 and the 1.8 million Australians who participated in the Telstra 2 float saw the number of total shareowners increase from 40.6 per cent in 1998 to 53.7 by late last year.
Figures released by the ASX show that 7.6 million Australians now own shares either directly or through a managed fund or superannuation, an increase of 2.1 million in the past two years.
There is now $700 billion invested in the Australian market with a turnover of $300 billion worth of shares each year.
The survey shows that Australia ranks first internationally in total share ownership, followed by Canada at 52 per cent, United States (48 per cent), United Kingdom (40 per cent), New Zealand (38 per cent) and Germany (25 per cent).
Importantly, the direct ownership of shares increased from 31.9 per cent in October 1998 to 40.6 per cent by the end of last year, representing an increase to 5.7 million people.
The ASX says a significant contribution to the increase was the float of "household names", par-ticularly the second tranche of Telstra which attracted 1.8 million people. Of those, 321,000 bought shares directly for the first time.
This compared with 730,000 who entered the market via AMP and 559,000 who bought shares in the initial float of Telstra in 1997. The survey said Telstra 2 also attracted many young people aged between 25 to 44 to the share market for the first time. Share ownership has drifted away from being the domain of retirees and older people, with those aged 35 to 44 now the biggest proportion of investors at 48 per cent.
The survey found shares were no longer restricted to the wealthy, with the number of smaller investors on the way up, although ownership remained larger for higher-income households.
About 28 per cent of the retail investors had a portfolio worth up to $5,000, while the average retail investor's portfolio is now worth $28,000.
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