About three-quarters of investors lost their money in the first half of this year, and of those, about 40 percent reported a loss of over 30 percent, according to the latest research released by the financial news website Hexun, Shanghai Securities News reported.

The survey received 38,475 replies, which showed only 24 percent of investors in the northern part of China broke even or made money and 75.07 percent reported losses, with 40 percent reporting losses of over 30 percent.

Southern investors showed similar results, the report said.

About 60 percent of the northern investors put more than half of their family assets in the stock market, and 40 percent of them even used over 70 percent of their assets to invest in stocks. Unlike the northern investors, 53.13 percent of the southern investors put 10 to 50 percent of their family assets in the stock market.

However, the respondents are still optimistic about the Chinese economy in the next six months: 45.22 percent of them say the GDP growth will be between 8 percent and 10 percent, 33.91 percent say the GDP growth will slow to less than 8 percent, and 17.39 percent say GDP growth will slump. Only 3.48 percent of the investors say the economy will be overheated to reach a growth of over 10 percent.

The investors are also optimistic about the inflation expectations. A total of 80.87 percent of the investors say inflation will not occur or will be slight in the second half year, the report said.