One in Three Individual Investors Say They Will Increase Stock Investments if Interest Rates Fall

Samsung Securities Untact Conference Survey of 9,629 Customers
"89.2% Expect the US Federal Reserve to Start Cutting Interest Rates This Year"

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seon-ae] Domestic investors plan to increase their stock investments this year as interest rates stabilize.

Samsung Securities announced on the 25th that, based on a survey of 9,629 participants in the 'Untact Conference,' 37% of respondents said they would increase their stock investment proportion if deposit interest rates fall below 3%.

Additionally, 17.0% responded that they plan to increase investments regardless of the interest rate level, indicating that investors are moving away from the cautious investment atmosphere caused by the sharp interest rate hikes that shook the market last year. Regarding the outlook on whether the U.S. Federal Reserve's (Fed) tightening stance will continue this year, 89.2% answered "No," showing strong expectations for easing of tightening.

In particular, 59.0% expect that 'interest rate cuts' will begin after the third quarter of this year, anticipating that after finishing rate hikes in the first half, the Fed will shift to rate cuts to support economic recovery.

As for regions where investors plan to increase their stock investment proportions, 'the United States' and 'domestic' accounted for the majority with 42.9% and 42.4%, respectively. Only 4.7% responded that they would invest first in emerging markets and other regions.

When asked about the sectors they most want to invest in when the stock market begins a full rebound, domestically, semiconductors (36.8%) were chosen, while overseas, electric vehicles and secondary batteries (43.0%) topped the list. Following these, domestic sectors included secondary battery-related stocks (23.3%) and IT platforms (22.11%), while overseas sectors included big tech (29.1%) and biotech (14.8%).

A Samsung Securities official said, "Contrary to the Fed's comments about maintaining the tightening stance within the year, domestic individual investors seem to have high expectations for easing tightening within the year based on changes in market indicators such as inflation indices and interest rate movements," adding, "Recently, the perception among investors that both stocks and bonds are undervalued has grown, so if the trend of declining market interest rates becomes clear, individual investors' stock-related investment sentiment is expected to improve rapidly."