Inflow of retail investors to stock market slows down: 2022 Q3 results
The number of retail brokerage clients slightly increased to exceed 27 million people, though the number of active clients did not rise. Trust management saw an outflow of large strategic investors. This information is presented in the Review of Key Indicators of Professional Securities Market Participants for 2022 Q3.
The brokerage client base was growing predominantly due to investment newcomers. Household assets under brokerage and trust management totalled 5.2 trillion and 1 trillion rubles, respectively.
The average brokerage account declined from 211,000 to 192,000 rubles over the quarter, while the average trust management account rose from 1 million to 1.2 million rubles. Notably, there was an increase in the number of ‘trial’ accounts opened with zero or small balances. An important trend was a reduction in foreign assets in retail investor portfolios managed by brokers. This resulted from the sale of foreign shares in accessible markets, the redemption of Eurobonds, and the withdrawal of unfriendly countries’ currencies from brokerage accounts.
The structure of the stock market changed substantially. After the exit of non-residents, retail investors became dominant in the stock market, holding up to 80% of the equity segment. Nevertheless, the key liquidity ratios of the market did not get worse, according to the review.