The equity markets have seen a surge in the participation of women during the COVID-19 pandemic and experts believe that the increase in pay cuts and layoffs along with the need to share the household expenditure has resulted in increased participation of women in equity markets.
The decrease in bank fixed deposit (FD) rates have also been a factor resulting in the increased women participation in the equity markets. A major portion of the women is first time participants and housewives. The growth of retail participation was also a true case for women who were looking for alternative investment avenues due to the decreasing rates of bank fixed deposit (FD). The lockdown has resulted in the acceleration of investment by women in equity markets via digital platforms to increase their capital knowledge.
The online brokerage platform Upstox witnessed an increase of 32 percent in the account opening by women from April to June 2020, compared to the preceding three months, out of which 70 percent of women are first-time investors and additionally, 35 percent of the brokerage house`s women customers are housewives.
According to Mr. Ravi Kumar, who is the co-founder and CEO of Upstox, the pay-cuts and layoffs along with the increased need to share household expenses have brought more women into trading.
The growing trend of moving savings from physical to financial assets was due to factors like increasing gold prices and low returns from bank fixed deposit (FD) and real-estate investments.
The increase in the number of women participants in the equity markets is also due to the attractive valuations since late March.
74 percent of the female customers are from tier 2 and tier 3 cities and out of the overall number of active female customers, 55 percent are traders, whereas, 45 percent are investors. The general expectations of women customers are high profits in a very short period without too many entry/exits, which is mainly due to the first-time investments.
Women investors have started to actively manage their investments and becoming quite successful at it. It has now become easy to invest in equity markets due to simple technology and access to knowledge about the markets.
