Why investors are not panicking

A couple of years back, if the stockmarket fell by 200-300 points in a day, many investors would panic. But on Wednesday, even a 615-point fall in the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index didn't send alarm bells ringing among investors. ''Why should we panic? Today, the market is at a higher level. Even a 400 points fall is less than three per cent of the market,'' said Anoop S Kumar, a retail investor who works for a public sector bank. He's not alone who thinks so.

With investors making good returns from the market in the last couple of years (200-300 per cent), brokers say the investors' appetite to absorb losses has gone up significantly. ''Last two years, investors have made lot of money. Hence, their appetite to take losses has increased,'' said a Mumbai-based stock broker, who advises high-networth individuals but didn't wish to be identified.

''In the last two months, people made lots of money; so people were somewhat complacent today and never got a chance to exit. The real panic would start tomorrow if the markets don't recover, and we make the margin calls,'' warned the broker. Investors, who were hoping the BSE Sensex to correct by 1,500-2,000 points, seemed to have even factored in that (a further fall of 200-300 points).

''Investors have matured. Today, they can gauge the market movement, having seen both the worst and good sides of it. They don't keep their positions open,'' says Ashok Singhania, a Mumbai-based high networth investor. ''People have already hedged themselves (through the profits made earlier). Tomorrow, even if the market falls 200-300 points, I can fund the margin call,'' added Singhania.

Investors seemed to have taken lessons from the market crash on May 18, when the Sensex fell by 6.7 per cent and many investors were trapped. ''Last Thursday, most investors squared up their F&O positions. So, what you see now are new positions, or old positions which are rolled over. People knew the market would be volatile,'' adds Singhania, who runs a plastic processing unit.

Also, financial planners say that many people, coming through the SIP/mutual fund route, are investing for the long run. ''You don't have to panic even if the market falls in the short term as sometimes the market falls in tandem with the global stockmarket indices. Even if foreign investors pull out in the short term, they will have to come back to India as it is among the top four emerging markets, said Suresh Sadagopan, a Mumbai-based certified financial planner.

''Many investors see a 400-500 points fall a short blip, and hence, don't see the need to panic. Many are investing for the long term in a market, which has delivered a 19-20 per cent return over the last 20 years,'' added Ganesh

(Some names of investors and brokers have been changed to protect identities)