As stocks sink, tide of regret rises among investors

Wang Yan is starting to regret the day two months ago when she gave into temptation and piled into the Chinese equity market.

"Back then I thought I must be stupid not investing in stocks as making money out of them was so easy," said Wang, 26, who works for a publisher in Hangzhou, in eastern Zhejiang province. "Now I think I'm even more stupid as the money I lost almost equals my annual salary."

As Chinese shares turn from the world's best performers into the biggest losers, concern is spreading among individual investors who account for more than 80 percent of trading on mainland exchanges. The market's reversal - with a 7.4 percent tumble in the Shanghai Composite Index on Friday - is dominating conversations across the country as people try to gauge whether the worst is over.