The Hindu Business Line : Women call the shots

These days, more and more women are getting attracted to investing in equity. Those with knowledge and discipline are making money. Some have moved a step further... into technical charts and analysis.

Whenever one thinks of women and investing, the first thing that comes to mind is gold and jewellery. One is certainly not an MCP but that's what the most common impression is. But in the last couple of years, this trend has been changing and changing really fast. Maybe it's in the fitness of things that if women demand equal rights and equal opportunities, why not the right to invest in equities too? During my various seminars and teaching assignments, I have been noticing major changes. A couple of years ago, one hardly found any women in investment seminars. Now at least 20 per cent of the participants are women. Similar is the case with the teaching assignments. Here the ratio is even higher at about 40 per cent. I must confess one thing that the effort and sincerity put in by the women folk in learning or following investment rules, and their discipline, is remarkable. Seldom have I found them repeating mistakes and they are very quick learners. The reason for them being sincere, meticulous and systematic is that they suffer from a major handicap in trying to enter a male bastion. This, along with the fact that it is "savings" that one is playing with ensures complete sincerity. Secondly, being new to this game, they have no set ideas and are prepared to accept your arguments and viewpoints.

Equity investment is done by a large cross-section of people but the Marwari-Gujrati communities are actively involved in this business, be it brokers or sub-brokers or day traders. Naturally, one would expect women from these communities to be active in the stock market but till some time back it wasn't so. We do have women stock brokers and some time ago we even had a woman as the President of The Stock Exchange in Mumbai.

One has found that most men are quite content investing in the names of their women for tax purposes, but are not quite open to their actively participating in the business or investing. The women naturally take a backseat but most of them are aware of the markets and some actually invest their savings. Even here the new generation is now taking very active interest and one has started hearing of women advisors. Financial Planners, a new concept in India, has started, and includes quite a few women planners.

By and large, after the stock scam of 2001, investing in equity took a backseat for quite a while. But the current bull run, which is now eight months old, is attracting people back to the markets. The one single factor which is attracting investors, particularly women, is the sustained rise in the price of gold which is an Indian housewife's forte. There is a feeling now that maybe gold has risen enough, and some of the money from gold maybe put into equity.

Even though women have become more aware and knowledgeable about investing in equity, there is still a stigma about the market. This place is known as "SATTA BAAZAAR" and speculation is a bad word. And yet, the women who have invested in equity have made money. There have been disaster stories as well, as one hears from viewers airing their experiences on TV shows. One may however safely conclude that the number of women investors is certainly increasing by leaps and bounds.

Salaried women have been putting a little bit of money into equity through the mutual fund route and the success of UTI in raising money was proof of this. But since the UTI disaster, this avenue took a big beating and took about two years to partially restore confidence. Compared to the salaried classes, self employed women do look upon the markets for making better or more money but only in a casual way.

The latest entrant in equity investment is the professional woman. She has both the knowledge and the conviction and is also prepared to use a professional advisor. She is aware of the risks and rewards and is in touch with the business and corporate world.

Most of these women have had a good education and learnt the advantages and benefits of investing. Most important, all of them realise that with interest rates at about 5-6 per cent and being taxable, alternate avenues of earning is a necessity.

With more and more channels devoting time to equity, with one being a full time business news channel, large numbers of women are glued to such programmes. Such channels have literally brought the market into the living room and have managed to draw quite a number of women into equity investment.

Let me narrate a few of my experiences. There was this lady from a suburb of Mumbai who was self-employed and also had an interest in the market. She contacted some media persons and managed to get hold of my cell number. She then contacted me and short listed my current recommendations from the various channels I comment upon. Based on the recommendations she invested in those stocks and did well for herself. Her interest in the markets continues and she is now a regular in investing.

There was also this housewife who had always been interested in the markets, but had been busy bringing up her children. Once they grew up, she found more time to pursue her interests.

She started in real earnest and is today not only an investor but also a day trader in equity! Her continued interest in the market has led her to learn something about technical analysis too.

Derivative trading has taken off in a very big manner and trading volumes are now about Rs 12,000 crore or roughly 2.5 times the daily cash volume. Trading strategies ensure almost risk-free profits. There are a large number of women traders who have learnt this trade and are now involved on a full time basis.

Clearly the number of women who have started investing in equities as an alternate source of income, or a means to supplement their existing income, is increasing. Going further, women with a regular source of income, (working and self-employed), look upon equity investing as a saving for a rainy day. I believe that with a little bit of hard work and discipline, their success would certainly increase.

Picture by Bijoy Ghosh

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