China's consumption of goods and services is widely pinned as the next catalyst for global growth, so both the public and private sectors are increasingly chasing insights into the mentality of mainland buyers.
A new survey from HSBC attempts to service that need. The bank surveyed more than 2,000 Chinese citizens in August about their spending habits when it came to shopping, travel, autos and tech, revealing the results in a report this week. The bank also offered its top stock selections for each of those four categories.
"We focused on youth, respondents aged 18 to 34, as they should offer a better gauge of up and coming trends. We also focused on the wealthier bracket of the society, consumers whose household income exceeds 120,000 renminbi ($18,010) a year as they could be an indication of what the broader society may aspire to in terms of discretionary spending," HSBC explained.
Here are some of the key findings.
Broad outlook
Shopping
Among HSBC's stock picks were dairy names like Inner Mongolia Yili and China Modern Dairy. Uni-President China, Wuliangye and Kweichow Moutai were singled out as companies that offer unique high-end/quality products.
Baidu was another buy, seeing as 71 percent of respondents viewed the search engine's results as fair and unbiased.
Travel
CYTS, Samsonite and Spring Airlines were the key names to watch in the sector.
"We also like Korean names AmorePacific and Hugel given the influence Korean trends have over Chinese consumers," HSBC said.
Autos
Tech
Samsung Electronics was touted as a buy for "both for its components businesses as well as its play on OLED technologies, which should enable future flexible display in smartphones."
Amid robust appetite for Apple products in China, HSBC also prefers Apple supplier-related firms such as Luxshare and Catcher.
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