Brokers smitten by women power

It is no news that more women investors are jumping on to the bandwagon with the stock markets on the rise. But for the first time ever, stock broking firms are recognising this as business opportunity and devising strategies to tap this potential.

The Kerala-based Geojit Financial Services Limited announced its plans to start India's first-all women outlet for investment in stocks and shares on October 15.

According to C J George, managing director of Geojit, the company will be opening similar outlets in Mumbai and Chennai also. The branch exclusively designed for women investors will be run solely by a team of women professionals.

"As the stock market is on an upbeat mood, more women are interested in stock market, but are reluctant to invest because of lack of awareness and proper education" he added.

Geojit is not the only one. Motilal Oswal which is fast expanding its retail operations is also looking to capture the business opportunity.

Says Piyush Kulshreshtha, head brand management at Motilal Oswal Securities Ltd, adding, "More and more women are getting into the corporate world resulting in their disposable income going up but only 30 per cent of them invest money in the stock market. There is a huge opportunity for brokers to tap this segment of investors".

Kulshreshtha strongly believes that through proper encouragement and motivation more and more women investors can be attracted to the market. 4 per cent of Motilal's client base is occupied by women and this broking outfit is taking a serious move to reach this class of the audience.

"We are looking at coming out with products that are tailor made for women and strategically market these products with campaigns and advertisements focussing on them", Piyush adds.

Leading brokers admit to the fact that women participants in the market have gone up significantly. Says Rahul Rege, head -sales and business development at Sharekhan, "We have witnessed a significant surge in the number of women particpants in investment forums and seminars. Still they constitute a very small per cent in the overall market.

Another leading online broking firm Indiabulls, has around 25000 women clients from their total customer base of 150,000 clients . "As much as 25-30 per cent of their new client acquisition are also women in the age group of 25-45 years," says Gagan Banga, executive director at Indiabulls.