A People's Bank of China survey shows urban households were more likely to invest in stocks and funds in the second quarter as the country's stock markets recovered from five years of bearish performance.

The survey showed 15.8 percent of urban households considered "investing in stocks and funds" given current prices and interest rates, up 7.8 percentage points over the previous quarter, the biggest rise since 1999.

However, 34.6 percent of urbanities considered "saving more" as the best option for their money, a drop of 3.8 percentage points over the previous quarter.

The survey also showed the structure of their financial assets was changing with more urban dwellers choosing stocks and funds instead of savings as their major financial assets.

"The bullish stock market in May really attracted a large amount of idle funds," noted the survey findings.

The central bank said savings for home purchase, education and pensions had fallen in the 50 cities surveyed, while other financial assets purposes rose to 6.6 percent from 4.3 percent in the first quarter.

Source: Xinhua