Women increasingly invested in shares – NAB

Photo by Ishant Mishra on Unsplash

New data from nabtrade has revealed that “unprecedented” numbers of women are turning to shares to create wealth.

According to NAB’s trading platform, Gen Z females now hold over 20% more assets than their male counterparts.

But despite holding larger portfolios, women are trading their shares far less frequently.

Gen Y portfolios were of similar sizes between the sexes, while Baby Boomer and Gen X women held 56% and 78% of the portfolio size of men in the same age groups respectively.

nabtrade Director of SMSF and Investor Behaviour Gemma Dale said it was exciting to see women, particularly young women, looking to the share market to secure their financial future.

“When it comes to building wealth, young women are starting early and showing great confidence in their stock-picking – putting them in good stead to reduce wealth inequality between the sexes over time,” Ms Dale said.

“Global research indicates the female tendency to trade less frequently can often lead to better portfolio outcomes, in part due to lower transaction costs, but trading in larger sizes demonstrates higher conviction in their investment decisions.”

Women favour ethical and familiar brands

Individual shareholdings varied between the genders; women favoured staples such as Coles and Woolworths, as well as retailers like Harvey Norman.

Women were also more likely to invest in Bubs Australia and A2 Milk than their male counterparts.

Ms Dale said women were buying shares they knew and were investing for the long-term, which indicated a high level of engagement and interest.

“Our data showed women tend to stay with stocks and sectors that are familiar to them, meaning they are more likely to hold bank shares and less likely to invest in direct international shares than men across all age groups,” she said.

“While female investors showed a strong preference for ethical ETFs and were also much less likely to hold gambling and energy stocks than men, they were equally likely to hold one of the big miners.”

Stock/Sector/Instrument Type	More likely to hold
Coles and Woolworths	Women
Retail sector	Women
Big Miners	Equal
Big Energy	Men
Gambling	Men
A2 Milk, Bubs Australia	Women
Domestic ETF	Women
International ETF	Men
Ethical ETF	Women

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