SHANGHAI/HONG KONG - China's annus horribilis has seen its stock markets fall, funds run up losses and foreign investors run for the exit. But areas of the market dominated by small stocks and frequented by the country's retail investors have done surprisingly well.
Take self-employed retail trader Joseph Cui, for instance. By buying micro-cap stocks of artificial intelligence companies, Cui has picked a corner of the market big fund managers can barely squeeze into, and made a fat 20% return on his 2-million-yuan investment. "It's a tough environment for big capital. But for short-term money, it's easy play," Cui said.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.CONCEPT STOCKS Retail investor Helen Wu is not bashful talking about"stir-frying" - the practice of pumping up stocks with hot concepts. "We mainly pick stocks with a big story to tell, such as AI or Huawei, so that stir-frying becomes easy," Wu said, referring to the mania in China around ChatGPT, as well as much-hyped technological breakthroughs at U.S.-blacklisted firm Huawei.