Chinese individual investors sold US$308 million more bonds than they bought during the first 10 months of 2007, state media reported. Most customers preferred to invest in stocks, due to the low yield (4.52%) paid by 10-year bonds relative to inflation, which reached 6.5% in August and is likely to continue at high levels. Individual investors held 0.11% of a total US$509.5 million in treasury bonds at the end of October, compared with 0.28% the previous year. The chief purchasers of the bonds were insurers, banks, mutual funds and securities firms, which find the current yield more appealing in the long run.