More Youngsters Aware Of Investment Opportuntiies With Advent Of Internet

Harizah Hanim Mohamed KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 (Bernama) -- The advent of the Internet has created greater awareness of investment opportunities among the younger generation, says SI Portal.com Sdn Bhd Managing Director Andrew Chan. This, coupled with the need to add another income stream and desire to make more money, has resulted in the younger generation starting to familiarise themselves with investment products. "The younger generation are looking for another source of income to complement their salary," Chan told Bernama at the Invest Fair Malaysia 2016 held in June. He said approximately 8,000 people visited this year's event and a higher percentage of them were youngsters. Last year, out of the 4,000 patrons to the annual fair, 20 per cent were made up of youngsters. Financial institutions, fund management companies, wealth advisors and alternative platforms participated in the two-day event from June 2, aimed at educating Malaysians on investment opportunities, basic investment knowledge, as well as, advanced investment strategies. SI Portal.com established ShareInvestor Malaysia and is a subsidiary of ShareInvestor, the Singapore-based financial Internet media and technology company, which in turn is wholly-owned by Singapore Press Holdings. Chan noted that the youngsters' exposure to the investment portfolio was still limited as they preferred to invest in conservative and mature portfolio such as insurance. "(This is) In contrary to the older generation that have a stable stream of income and are more risk averse and willing to go for alternative portfolios such as agro halal and maybe property too," he said. Hence, he added, youngsters need to learn more about managing risk related to financial markets. Chan pointed out the younger generation were also found to be concentrating on Malaysian-based stocks due to familiarity to the local system and affordability compared with regional and international stocks. The ShareInvestor website, he explained, provided a platform for traders to obtain a compilation of analysis on companies, as well as, advice on which stock they should invest in. "We also have access to markets of seven countries and 10 exchanges including Hong Kong's Hang Seng, Singapore's Strait Times, Stock Exchange of Thailand and Bursa Malaysia. "However, 70 per cent of them are focused on stocks traded on Bursa Malaysia," he said. -- BERNAMA