NE lost about Rs 100 crore in market meltdown

Guwahati, Oct 10 (UNI) The Northeastern region has lost nearly Rs 100 crore in the recent global market meltdown.

''This figure is on the conservative side as most of the investors and broking houses are not revealing the true picture,'' Mr Sailen Burman of Religare India, one of the most popular broking houses of the North East, said.

The commercial scenario in the Northeastern region, which was traditionally not known for investing heavily in the equity market, has changed during the past few years with the arrival of more organised broking houses, including Religare, Motilal Oswal, ICICI and other private and public sector banks offering their services.

A general survey carried out over phone with various broking houses of Guwahati made it clear that small investors or the first generation investors had been shying away after burning their fingers heavily in the stock market mayhem in the past fortnight.

''As till the beginning of this year the stock market had been giving far higher returns than banks and post offices, a sizable section of middle class salaried people of the Northeastern region have invested through the stock market and the growth of broking houses all over the state is the indicator of its popularity,'' Mr Barman said.

However, the brokers informed that the long term investors had still not lost confidence as it was the best time to invest in the market. But they admitted that not much of new investors were coming out and majority of old investors were holding back their new investments.

Most of the investors and brokers feel that the market will come back on an upswing within 8-10 months.

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