Share trading by retail investors in mainland China during last year’s stock market bubble was so great it accounted for more than a third of the total amount of equities traded globally.
Annual data compiled by the World Federation of Exchanges, the trade association for the world’s bourses, also found that the frenzied buying and selling sent global equity volumes soaring 55 per cent to a record 27.3bn in 2015, surpassing the levels seen in the financial crisis. The total value of share trading rose 41 per cent to $114tn, the WFE added.
Of those totals, the number of trades in mainland China rose 186 per cent to 10.1bn while the value of share trading soared 218 per cent to $43tn.