Chinese deferring car purchases for stocks

Beijing

THE stockbroker is beating the car salesman in the battle for Chinese wallets.

With China's stock market more than doubling in the past year, consumers such as Tom Zhang are deferring big-ticket purchases to chase the rally. The Beijing resident was deciding between a Buick and a Volkswagen Passat before concluding his 300,000 yuan (S$65,770) would be better off in equities. He was right, as his holdings soared to 800,000 yuan in value in little more than a year.