Women have bigger portfolios: how young Russians are investing

August 12 is International Youth Day, a date designated by the United Nations General Assembly in 1999 to recall the role played by young people in development and peacebuilding. Sber timed its research on the investment habits of young people to coincide with the holiday.

Understanding the stock market is a fundamental aspect of financial literacy. In fact, a great many young people aged 18-35 would like to learn the basics of investing: 50% of all brokerage accounts opened with Sber over the past year (between June 30, 2020, and June 30, 2021) belong to people in this age group. In absolute numbers, that is 1.5 million people. Residents of Moscow opened 34% of those accounts, with St. Petersburg (3% of accounts) following well behind the capital. Heightened interest in the stock market on the part of young people was also recorded in Samara, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Perm, Voronezh, Ufa, Chelyabinsk, and Volgograd. Forty-eight percent of accounts were opened by women and 52% were opened by men.

In terms of general trends, 32% of brokerage accounts with Sber were opened by people aged 30-35, 29% by people aged 21-24, 21% by people aged 25-29, and 18% by people aged 18-20. Young women have a higher average portfolio size than young men: RUB 150,000 compared to RUB 130,000.

Young investors tend to invest in shares and bonds. Gazprom, Sberbank, and Nornickel securities are the most popular Russian-issued shares among men, with Tesla, Apple, and Alibaba being the most popular foreign-issued shares. Women prefer to invest in Sberbank, Gazprom, Nornickel, Tesla, Alibaba, and Boeing.

Transactions usually take place several times a year (50% of men and 53% of women). Twenty-six percent of young men and 27% of young women trade several times per quarter, 15% and 14% trade several times in six months, and 9% and 6% trade several times per month, respectively. Both young men and women prefer to trade based on investment analytics, which is why 83% selected the Investment plan, which provides them with access to exclusive analytical reviews.

There are a lot of young people in the stock market now: 47% of all active brokerage accounts with Sber were opened by clients aged 18-35. That means that 2.3 million accounts belong to young investors. Forty-two percent of them have both a brokerage account and a personal investment account. Although so far Sber counts more men in this age group among its clients (59% of accounts opened), young women are quickly catching up. We strive to make our investment products as convenient as possible for young people and to help them achieve the financial results they desire.

Vladimir Yarovoy

Acting Director, Global Markets, Sberbank

Data as of June 30, 2021.