Indian women fall for the charm of equity, hit D-Street in droves

Women investors turned more aggressive in the domestic equity market than ever before amid the ongoing Covid-19 disruption. It seems that TINA (there is no alternative) effect played its part in the financial markets amid falling interest rates and rising gold prices.

Some market watchers believe the work-from-home (WFH) option also gave them a chance to participate in the equity market.

Data available with a couple of broking firms suggest there has been a substantial rise in women traders and investors in recent months. For instance, Mumbai-based discount broker 5paisa.com claims it active female clients increased by 49 per cent during the April-June quarter compared with March quarter of 2020.

CEO Prakarsh Gagdani said zillennial and millennial women are not only earning, but are taking control of their own money and investment. “With access to knowledge and affordable user-friendly platforms, the share of women traders is increasing.”

FYERS, a technology-focussed stockbroking firm, witnessed more than three-fold growth in the number of active women traders in last four months. The broking firm said the number of active women traders on its platform increased to over 10 per cent of the total now from just 3 per cent before the Covid crisis.

FYERS Co-Founder and CEO Tejas Khoday said over the years, women are putting their savings in traditional assets like gold or keeping it in cash, bank fixed deposits and some in tax-saving mutual funds. “However, the lockdown and work-from-home gave them the opportunity to start investing directly in the stock market,” he said

Upstox, now India’s third largest broking firm by clients, reported a similar trend during the April-July quarter. It saw 32 per cent QoQ growth in account opening by women during this period, of which 70 per cent comprised new-to-market investors.

Co-founder and CEO Ravi Kumar said, “What has brought more women into trading is the increased need for sharing household expenses amid rampant paycuts and layoffs. Also, during the lockdown, there was an increasing realisation that they couldn’t sell physical assets, such as gold, or land, to meet short-term financial needs. Therefore, there was an increasing trend of savings moving from physical to financial assets,” he said.

Besides, the attractive stock valuations since late March also led to an increasing number of women investors participating in the equity market, he said.

Kumar said around 74 per cent of Upstox’s female customers are from Tier II and III cities like Visakhapatnam, Jaipur, Surat, Ranga Reddy, Nagpur, Nashik, Guntur, among others.

Majority of new investors or traders have made good money in the recent past, as stocks witnessed a solid bounce from their March lows, which lifted equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty more than 50 per cent from their March lows.

“The rise in the number of women traders can be attributed to the lure of an alternative option of earnings while being at home. We have seen salary cuts and job losses in case of salaried individuals. Therefore, the woman in the house is also participating in the market with an objective of creating an extra source of income,” said Astha Jain, Research Analyst, Hem Securities.