Retail investors timidly increased their participation in Spanish equities during 2022, according to data published by the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) through the update of the Interactive panel on retail investor behavior which collects data from 2019 and until last year.
Broadly speaking, the profile of the Spanish investor does not change. Mainly men (with more than 80% of the total), the average age remains over 52.5 years and still manages to maintain the average investment that grew during the pandemic, at higher levels than in 2019, when the Spanish stock market recovered attractiveness as a way of profitability for citizens. The regulator does highlight, however, how the volume of operations by retailers has been reduced, around 16%, but not the money invested because larger value packages have been bought and sold.
So, The small investor spent an average of 3,017 euros during 2022 in purchase operations and another 3,472 euros in sales operations, compared to 2,733 and 2,997 euros, respectively, in 2021. Jointly, last year the volume of purchases by retail investors of Ibex 35 shares was 21,216 million euros and the volume of sales was 23,837 million, which represents a decrease of 0.4% in the first case and an increase of 1.6% in the second. In total, trading in the hands of minorities was 6.2% of Ibex purchases and 7% of index share sales.
“By sectors, Most of the trading continued to be carried out on securities in the financial sector and its importance increased to exceed 39% of the total.l, interrupting the declines recorded in 2020 and 2021. The relevance of trading in securities in the consumer discretionary and materials sectors also increased, while there were declines in industrial, health and communications companies,” he says. the CNMV this Thursday. By age groups, the youngest, between 18 and 34 years old, allocated 2,032 euros in their operations in the financial sector that brings together Ibex banks and insurance companies, compared to 3,634 euros for the oldest, those investors between the ages of 65 and 69. This amount rises to 3,875 euros in the purchase/sale of securities linked to the energy sector, in firms such as Iberdrola, Endesa or Redeia, to whom investors allocated 21% of the total of the volume traded in 2022.
The third most traded sector in the hands of retailers was industry, with 15.4%, followed by basic materials with 7.5%, communications and discretionary consumption with each 5% and the health sector (with Laboratorios Rovi and Grifols ).