(Yicai Global) May 13 -- Investor sentiment toward China’s stock market is diverging, the findings of a survey by Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business showed.

Individual investors are pessimistic, while financial sector investors are the most upbeat they have been since 2018, according to the Cheung Kong Investor Sentiment Survey for the first quarter.

Some 65.8 percent of respondents were optimistic, down 1.7 percentage points from the previous quarterly survey, of which 61.3 percent of retail investors expect Chinese mainland shares to gain, a decline of 8.1 points. But 79.9 percent of financial industry investors believe shares will climb, a jump of 18.3 points.

China’s equity markets are still dominated by small investors, so stocks have retreated in line with their sentiments, Liu Jing, CKGSB associate dean and director of the Center for Investment Research, said at an event to mark the report’s release yesterday.

Retail investor pessimism is also seen in regard to other major asset classes. Just 57.6 percent expect property prices to increase, down more than 10 points from the last survey, compared with nearly 80 percent for financial sector investors.

Over 61 percent of respondents were confident China’s economic growth will exceed 5 percent this year, an increase of 8 points to the highest in three and a half years.

Despite excess global liquidity and skyrocketing asset prices, overall expectations for inflation remain relatively stable, the same as in the previous quarter.

Along with a sharp first-quarter performance rebound at mainland-listed firms, willingness to invest in private businesses bottomed out, their revenue growth outpaced that of state-owned enterprises, and respondents were more confident in listed companies making profits, Liu said.

Cheung Kong’s quarterly investor sentiment survey began in January 2018. The latest findings were based on about 2,500 respondents in 13 major Chinese cities as well as the earnings reports of listed companies, and the latest macro data on both Chinese and overseas capital markets.

Editor: Tom Litting