Investors at a stock exchange in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu Province. Photo: VCG

People in Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus epidemic, who have been trapped at home amid a virus-triggered city lockdown and wary of the deadly virus have now found an activity to help them kill time - studying theory of investing in stocks. 

According to data from baidu.com, China's largest online search engine, the number of "stock account opening" searches made by Wuhan residents on Baidu's website ranked second among all Chinese mainland cities from January 23 to February 22, just after the capital city, Beijing. 

In particular, in the week ending on February 19, Wuhan residents made the largest number of searches regarding how to open a personal equities trading account.

Longer-term statistics showed that although Wuhan residents have always showed an interest in stock trading, it didn't flare up until recently. In the past year, the number of stock searches made by Wuhan residents only ranked eighth among Chinese mainland cities.

Some netizens have attributed the phenomenon to the fact that Wuhan residents have been "idle" during the coronavirus-triggered city lockdowns and need to find some activities to kill time. 

Others also commented that with industries at a halt, Wuhan residents have no other investment channels other than the stock markets to put their money in.

The stock markets showed strong appeal lately for Chinese investors, with the Shanghai Composite Index rising to 3,039.67 points on Friday, up from 2,746.61 points on February 3. The Shenzhen Component Index also took a strong leap of nearly 19 percent during the period.