The Chief economist's blog: The list of the most popular stocks needs updating

The list of the most popular stocks contains the publicly listed corporations in Finland that have the largest number of private persons as shareholders. This list is not that varied. A better diversification in the investment portfolios would bring some variation to the list. According to the Finnish Foundation for Share Promotion, the five most popular stocks in 2010 were Elisa, Nokia, Fortum, UPM and Sampo. The newest top 5 list was put together in September. The top 5 stocks in order of popularity were: Nordea, Nokia, Fortum, Elisa and Sampo. After ten years, the list looks pretty much the same. The Nordea head office moving to Finland in 2018 was basically the reason why UPM fell off the list. Number one on the list, Nordea, had almost 290,000 Finnish owners in September.

Higher stock prices do not attract new stockholders
In my opinion, what makes the list of the five most popular stocks interesting is that the two biggest companies on the Helsinki Stock Exchange are missing: Neste and Kone. Measured in the development of market value, this duo clearly wins the development of the five most popular stocks.

In 2010, Neste had 72,000 stockholders and now, 10 years later, it has more than 87,000 stockholders. Correspondingly, in 2010, Kone had more than 55,000 stockholders and by 2020 the number had increased by 10,000. The success of the companies' stocks is not fully reflected in an increased number of stockholders. Afterwards it is easy to get smart and say that it would have paid off to buy.

Familiar and safe
The popularity of old names is strong. A good example of this is Fortum. In 2010, the energy company had a little over 92,000 stockholders. In September 2020, there were over 191,000 stockholders! A high dividend yield and sovereign ownership seems to outshine the risks of the ongoing energy revolution.
Another hardy perennial is Nokia. The Finns' confidence in the company has not wavered despite the sales in the mobile phone business and the talk about a burning raft a few years back. I have no numbers to present but I think that many people hold stocks in Nokia as a remain from the IT bubble during the turn of the millennium.

No to speculation, yes to diversification
It is always easy to speculate afterwards. If you would have bought then, you would now have this much money. No. What would be a good rule of thumb that would bring some life into the ranking of the most popular stocks? A good starting point would be making sure that your own equity portfolio includes stocks in at least ten companies. Thus, diversification would be better and no one company would have too big an impact. In the good and in the bad.