OpinionWay-Fortuneo survey: the stock market still popular with individuals


While one might think that the inflation and market fluctuations caused by the war in Ukraine have driven individuals away from the financial markets, the opposite is true.
Despite an uncertain environment, dominated by inflation and the resulting tightening of central bank monetary policies, individuals will continue to invest in the stock market, including younger people. According to the OpinionWay survey for Fortuneo, more than 80% of stock market investors believe that the markets remain an interesting investment over the medium and long term. Contrary to what one might think, inflation can even prove to be a driving force for investment: 68% of individual shareholders say that investing in the stock market is a way to supplement their income.
Claire Castanet, Director of Investor Relations for the AMF (Autorité des marchés financiers), points out that “companies that pay dividends or whose shares are easy to buy and sell attract more investment from individual shareholders”.
Grégory Guermonprez, director of Fortuneo, came to the same conclusion: in total, 44% of the online bank’s customers are looking for dividend-paying investments.
Who invests?
“You are not going to invest in the same way depending on whether you are a student, a young employee or a senior professional, because your income and expenses are not the same,” explains Philippe Guillot, director of markets and data at the AMF. Younger people “will invest more frequently than their elders in companies outside Europe,” says Claire Castanet. For example, the US market and tech companies are highly sought after by these new investors.
Young people are also more inclined to make programmed investments, which are better suited to smaller budgets and which make it possible to “smooth out the investment over time by regularly putting a certain amount of money into the stock market”, stresses Claire Castanet.
Older people prefer “sure values”, in particular Cac 40 companies.
In terms of the amount invested, Philippe Guillot states that the average transaction amounts to 2,600 euros for a typical client of a traditional bank. The followers of neo-brokers (a new generation of stock brokers, accessible only via a mobile application), such as eToro or Trade Republic, invest less, with an average amount of 700 euros.
In the third quarter of 2022, however, the AMF noted a 35% drop in the number of investors who had carried out at least one transaction, either buying or selling shares, compared with the previous quarter. “This wait-and-see attitude can be interpreted in different ways,” says Philippe Guillot. “It could mean that individual shareholders are cautious about inflation, or it could mean that investors are satisfied with their current positions and do not want to change them for the time being.”
Read also> Paris becomes the leading European stock exchange
Featured photo : © Sarinyapinngam/ Getty Images
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Passionnée depuis son plus jeune âge par l’art et la mode, Hélène s’oriente vers une école de stylisme, l’Atelier Chardon-Savard à Paris, avec une option Communication. Afin d’ajouter des cordes à son arc, elle décide de compléter sa formation par un MBA en Management du Luxe et Marketing Expérientiel à l’Institut Supérieur de Gestion à Paris dont elle sort diplômée en 2020. Elle a notamment écrit des articles lifestyle et beauté pour le magazine Do it in Paris et se spécialise en rédaction d’articles concernant le luxe, l’art et la mode au sein du magazine Luxus Plus.********** [EN] Passionate about art and fashion from a young age, Hélène went to a fashion design school, Atelier Chardon-Savard in Paris, with a Communication option. In order to add more strings to her bow, she decided to complete her education with an MBA in Luxury Management and Experiential Marketing at the Institut Supérieur de Gestion in Paris from which she graduated in 2020. She has written lifestyle and beauty articles for Do it in Paris magazine and specializes in writing articles about luxury, art and fashion for Luxus Plus magazine.