Kerala women learn to grapple with 'bulls and bears'

Kochi, May 28: As the capital markets went into a tail spin this month, 55-year-old Valasa Kumari finally got the opportunity that she had been awaiting for some time.

Without a flicker of doubt, she called up her investment advisor at the Geojit Financial Services Ltd.'s all-women branch here and asked her to buy ''in volume''.

Equally enthusiastic was 50-year-old Ann John as she went on a hunt for scrips of Tata Steel, Infosys, SBI and Satyam in a bearish market.

''It is not every day that you can pick up the blue chips at these rates. These scrips are bound to go up so we may as well buy them when the market is down,'' she said.

These senior citizens are not the only market savvy women around.

Rather, from grandmothers to college students, grocery shop owners to medical professionals, Kerala women are learning to grapple with bulls and bears as they turn to the capital market to earn an extra buck to boost their domestic kitties or to see their savings grow.

''When we opened the country's first all-women investment office in Kochi in October last year, a lot of these women came in tentatively with their husbands and had no idea about the stock market. Today, we have more than 250 women clients registered with us and the branch was able to break even in just four months' time,'' Geojit manager Honey John told UNI.

As almost all the women were dabbling in the stock market for the first time, the investment advisors had to start educating them from the scratch.

But, having learnt the ropes, the women were proving to be adept players, with several of them turning up at the Geojit office every day to trade in their portfolios.

''We even have one lady who quit her job when she realised that she could make more money this way and also have more time on her hands to take care of her children and the house than when she was doing a job,'' Ms John says.

There are others, who now compete with their husbands to make more money on the stock market. One lady was able to wipe out the entire losses incurred by her husband in stock trading earlier.

''The men now seek advice from their wives on which scrips to invest in,'' Geojit Assistant Manager Vijyasree quips.

While most of the Geojit clients are young homemakers, there are some grandmothers also. One retired teacher, who wanted to invest her retirement benefits in stocks, said while her husband was satisfied with his ''five per cent returns on savings accounts'', she needed more money as she had more expenses.

The stock market is catching the fancy of the very young also, with some college students also trading on the stock market with their pocket money, Ms John says. Starting gingerly with five to ten shares, the women were now confidently going in for buying 1,000 to 2,000 shares at a time. ''Earlier, at the slightest dip in the market, I would get panic calls from my clients. But now, having learnt the way of the market, they just call me to apply 'stop loss', and also make use of the lower prices to buy certain high-end stocks,'' investment advisor Deepa Paul says.

During the capital market fall in recent days, none of the women pressed the panic button. Rather, they looked at it as an opportunity to buy.

''In fact, we had been waiting for such an opportunity for some time. Earlier, when the market would go down by 100 or 200 points, we would just go back home, not knowing what to do. But now, we know that there are opportunities when the market is rising and also when it is falling,'' Ms Valasa Kumari, a former bank officer, says.

According to Ms Paul, women in any case are careful and patient investors and do not mind retaining a share till they can make some profit on it. Also, as most of them do thorough home work on the companies that they are investing in, they are confident about the basic soundness of their investments.

Most of the women keep regular track of their portfolios and have become avid viewers of business channels and readers of financial dailies, Ms Paul says.

In a lighter vein, she mentions one particularly relieved husband, who called up the Geojit office to thank the staff for weaning his wife off television serials. ''My wife now likes to watch CNBC more than anything else,'' he said.

For most of the women, trading on the stock market has been a handy way of bringing in more money into the family kitty every month though they are also advised to set aside some money as investment.

Apart from personalised services, such as doorstep picking up of cheques from working women, the Geojit team also holds ''teaching sessions'' for existing and potential clients every week, at which they can clarify their doubts and questions.

''Every day, I get at least two to three calls from women who are interested in knowing what this is all about. But, we do not push them into anything. We let them take their own time in understanding the system and becoming a part of it,'' adds Ms John.

UNI