Chinese fund investors who suffered losses in recent stock market falls have been forced to put once-treasured possessions up for sale online, according to Xianya, a digital trading platform owned by Alibaba, which said hard-up sellers have put heirlooms and even engagement rings on the block.

The company said it had seen an influx of around 200,000 sellers over the past week who said in their listing posts that they needed cash to help deal with losses.

Items put up for sale included a grandfather’s watch, a vintage radio receiver that belonged to a seller’s mother, and even a diamond ring, Xianyu said. IPads, shoes and wallets were among the slew of everyday items on sale.

One seller told Apple Daily that it was painful for him to sell his cherished belongings but he needed cash to cover his losses in wine-related funds. Another seller said she had suffered a 20% loss from funds tied to the arms industry.

There were 1,066 mainland funds whose prices fell more than 20% in March, according to mainland news website 21jingji.com. Four dropped more than 30%, it said.

Mainland fund managers had concentrated their investments in the same group of stocks, such as liquor manufacturers Moutai and Wuliangye, so a fall in the prices of these had caused prices of many funds to drop too, a securities broker in Guangdong province told Apple Daily.

The sales on secondhand-goods trading platforms could be related to inexperienced investors such as those in their twenties who were especially sensitive to market fluctuations, said a marketing executive in a mainland fund management company.

The rush also showed a lack of confidence among mainland investors in the outlook for China’s stock market, and concerns about capital strains in companies and factories affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, said Kevin Tsui, an associate professor in economics at Clemson University in the United States.

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