Investments

Asia's mass affluent women become more active in investment since the onset of COVID

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, mass affluent women in Asia have increased their investment activities to build or expand their investment portfolio, and have been quite successful so far, HSBC finds.

HSBC analysed the investment behaviour of mass affluent women in Asia, including Hong Kong, mainland China and Singapore, between 2019 and 20212.

Here are the highlights of changes identified in their investment behaviour since the outbreak of COVID:

  • A 14% increase in the number of mass affluent female investors compared to pre-COVID period;
  • Female investors in the study have on average shown a double-digit increase in their trading activities, mainly driven by an increase in stock trading;
  • Over 50% of female investors have increased their investment in different asset classes or added different market exposure within the same asset class compared to pre-COVID to further diversify their portfolios;
  • Among the investment types, stocks, followed by multi-asset funds and stock focused funds were the preferred choices;
  • In terms of preferred sectors, female investors showed growing interest in the healthcare sector and blue-chip stocks.

 

Jenny Wang, Global and Regional Head of Personal Banking and Premier Wealth Solutions, HSBC said, “Our study showed that Asia’s mass affluent women are becoming more financially savvy, confident and active in their investments. On one hand, women in Asia are managing and growing their wealth more than ever before. Whichever life stage they are at, they are becoming more financially independent, and their aspirations for themselves, their families and the future are growing. On the other hand, under the new normal, more investors are adopting mobile and digitally-led analytics tools to evaluate investment choices and make informed investment decisions with female investors conducting 25% more transactions via digital channels.”

 

As the majority of Asia’s female investors (82%) in the study are adopting a prudent and active risk managing approach in investment, those looking for long-term asset growth can look to asset classes in the low-to-medium risk category with a more diversified approach”, she added.