Retail investors suffer wild ride as markets lurch

By Melanie Lee

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A month of wild financial market swings has taken a hefty toll on retail stock investors, battering not only their portfolios but their nerves too.

"It's like having a heart attack everyday," said Alice, a day trader in her forties from Singapore.

Many felt burned in China, where booming growth in the local stock market in recent years led to a surge of small investors.

"All we feel is helplessness and despair," said a 70-year-old retiree surnamed Zhao in Shanghai. "My savings totaled 260,000 yuan ($38,000) and there's just 50,000 yuan left now. Who can see a floor for the market now?" he said.

Shanghai's main stock index has lost almost 70 percent from its peak a year ago.

Global stock markets have been weak all year but the real rollercoaster ride started last month when U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed, sparking a major market meltdown.

The gyrations hit a peak in the past week, with Friday marking one of the biggest one-day falls ever followed by one of the biggest-ever rallies on Monday on hopes a coordinated global rescue plan would stem the crisis.

Markets resumed their slump soon after, however.

In Japan the Nikkei average ended 11 percent lower on Thursday, Seoul shares were down 9.4 percent for their third biggest loss ever, and Singapore stocks fell 5 percent, despite global policymaker rescue plans for the credit crisis.

In Taiwan, one housewife was visibly agitated as she watched stock prices plummet in a stock trading office.

"If investors lose their money, they'll spend less and all the other businesses will collapse as well. Crime will be rampant when people don't have jobs!" said the housewife, surnamed Chang.

Jin Hye-ryeon, a housewife in Seoul, said one of her friends sold out at huge losses because she was afraid of steeper falls.

DEPRESSING

It is not just the wallets of investors that are suffering but their mental states as well, said Kit S. Ng, psychologist for the Center for Psychology in Singapore.

"All my clients are talking about it, there is a sense of a depressed mood, of uncertainty, a noticeable amount of anxiety and loss," said Ng, adding that some of his patients have been seeing him more often since the market turmoil started.