Sethurathnam Ravi (S Ravi) is the former BSE Chairman and founder of Ravi Rajan & Co. Presently, Mr. Ravi holds the position of Non-Executive Chairman of Tourism Finance Corp. of India Ltd. and Director & Managing Partner at RRCA & Associates. Sethurathnam Ravi gives his views on the declination of interest of the retail investors in stock markets.
The Indian stock market has witnessed lakhs of new investors from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, this enthusiasm seems to have waned as returns from the market have flattened in recent months. From a high of 20 lakh new investors in October 2021, it has dropped to 13 lakhs in April 2022. Experts including Sethurathnam Ravi BSE, former BSE Chairman suggests that, patience might be a virtue in these tough times.
At a time when the Covid-19 pandemic and consequent lockdowns affected the economy, the stock market was one of the very few areas where the wheels were still turning. This attracted many new investors, and a record number of new Demat accounts were opened. There was a massive rise in the number of new Demat accounts. A total of 50 lakh Demat accounts were opened in 2019-20 and 1.42 crore in 2020-21. This shot up to 3.46 crore new Demat accounts in the year 2021-22.
On an average, 28.8 lakh Demat accounts were opened every month during 2021-22, which was higher than 11.8 lakh accounts per month in the previous year and 4.2 lakh Demat accounts per month in 2019-20. As a word of caution, Sethurathnam Ravi, the former BSE Chairman added that retail investors should diversify their portfolios and should not take loans to invest in equity.
Experts suggest that ups and downs in the stock market are a usual phenomenon and that new investors should be patient during these tough times. For many new investors, the market trend during the 2008 American subprime mortgage crisis is too old to be considered. “If the retail investors have used prudence and have invested in good stocks with strong fundamentals, they should not worry,” S Ravi BSE, former Chairman, BSE said.
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