According to a survey by OP Financial Group carried out this May, 49% of Finnish investors aged 18–34 believe that Nasdaq Helsinki will provide better returns on investment this year than in 2022.

The results show that younger investors are more likely to have a positive outlook of expected returns in the stock market. In all other age groups, less than 30% of investors expect the stock market to improve this year. For example, just 22% of Finnish investors aged 65–79 have a positive outlook of the returns on investment offered by Nasdaq Helsinki.

"Some young people have experienced the bull market following the pandemic and learned that the economy and stock markets have a tendency to recover from a crisis. With age, many investors may see the challenges of the bigger economic picture more clearly and place more emphasis on the effects of factors such as inflation. On the other hand, age can also bring with it a tendency for pessimism and caution," says Tiina Routamaa, Development Manager, Human-assisted Investment Services at OP.

Interest in the stock market among young people has been significantly increasing. OP's customer data shows that between January and May this year, investors aged 18–24 have bought shares in higher volumes than in the same period last year.

According to the survey, men are more optimistic about positive returns on investment than women. Routamaa says this may be due to deep-rooted cultural differences.

"Men have invested in the stock market longer and more actively so they simply have more experience, for example. Because investing used to be dominated by men, men are more likely to have engaged in discussions about investing and to have read about the topic in financial newspapers and literature, for example. Awareness of the benefits of investing alongside its risks and negative sides changes slowly."

Stock picks by OP Asset Management focus on the US, Japanese and emerging markets

According to Jussi Hyöty, Strategist and Portfolio Manager at OP Asset Management, OP's current investment outlook sets an underweight position on stocks and the money market and an overweight position on fixed income investments.

"Nasdaq Helsinki has about a dozen stocks with a large market cap, but these do not form a coherent market. Many Finnish stocks are mostly cyclical and dependent on Europe, so the return prospects of the Finnish stock exchange are comparable to the prospects of European markets," says Hyöty.

According to Hyöty, towards the end of last year, investors were prepared to buy undervalued stocks in emerging markets, but these prospects failed to materialise at the start of the year. Strict monetary policy slows down the economy, with particularly serious impacts on Europe, which depends on global trade and is susceptible to economic fluctuations. 

"Currently, our focus is on stocks in the US, Japanese and emerging markets instead of Europe. The world's leading technology companies that stand to benefit from AI are based in the US. On the other hand, Japan's increasingly lax monetary policy is encouraging investments in stocks," says Hyöty. 

Conducted in May 2023, the OP Financial Group survey was answered by a nationally representative online panel of 18–79-year-old Finns [n=2,419]. The number of respondents varies by question. The survey was conducted for OP Financial Group by Taloustutkimus. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.0 percentage points.