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“These are not the traditional retail investors who were not very sophisticated, not very educated and who were really stock market speculators. The new retail investors are fairly smart, clued to the market thanks to Telegram and WhatsApp. Information dissemination is a 100x of what we had experienced in similar periods of our lives. This is a pretty potent force.”

“Capital goods, infrastructure and real estate has come as a new investor interest area because of the demand that is suddenly there. If one wants to take a slightly contra, long-term call, then select opportunities in the auto sector can be considered.”

The tide is changing for the better. Kuvera saw women’s participation increase from 19% to 27% on its app, in the last 10 years. Research suggests that women make better investors as they tend to be more patient and more goal-based.

Though Delhi and Mumbai contribute the highest share of new investors (5.9% and 5.8%, respectively in August), smaller cities like Surat and Ahmedabad are registering a significant number of investors.

The country’s conglomerates have not only gained heft in the market but have also created wealth for shareholders big time.

These are some of the questions that come up on a WhatsApp group called ‘Financial Info’ created by a bunch of over 20-year-olds to discuss investments. Here profit-&-loss screenshots and links to news articles are shared apart from memes celebrating ITC stock rallies or back-to-back opportunities to buy-on-dips (market correction).

Most major asset management companies offer mutual funds that invest in stocks listed abroad, including through fund of funds (FoF), exchange-traded fund (ETF) structures. Investing in foreign companies like Amazon and Alibaba through mutual funds turns out to be cheaper than buying their stocks directly for Indian investors.

I think this week has been spectacularly positive for the index right from the word go. Some of the real estate stocks and many of the other underperforming stocks like IndoStar, Vodafone-Idea, etc have made a phenomenal comeback. Adding to that the already performing stocks and sectors like the Nifty IT index have done fabulously well.

Retail investors should diversify to other asset classes. Saving is not a one-horse play.

The market, i.e., frontline indices like Nifty, may now see some consolidation, though select pockets still have some more steam left in them. The coming week will see the 17,900 and 18,030 levels play out as key resistance points for Nifty, while supports may come in at the 17,760 and 17,600 levels.