In China, It’s Global Money Managers vs. Mom and Pop

It’s hard to tell whether the three-story building in a residential area of Shanghai is a stock brokerage or a senior center. On the first floor, white-haired men and women, some stooped with age, are gathered alongside rows of outdated computers set in wooden boxes. Upstairs, more people sit in VIP rooms, some reading newspapers, others playing poker, and a few peeling and eating shrimp.

They’re stock traders, spending a normal Thursday morning at the Quyang Road branch of Zhongtai Securities Co. Individual investors make up 80 percent of the trading volume in China’s $7.6 trillion stock market. And they’ll be among those on the other side of the trade as global fund managers march into China’s equity market after MSCI Inc.’s decision to include some Chinese mainland-listed A shares in its emerging-markets index beginning next year.