71

Asia-Pacific Business Review

Vol. VI, No. 2, April - June 2010
pp. 71-80, ISSN: 0973-2470

Investor’s Behavior and Investment Avenues in Global

Downturn: A Case Study of Millennium City
P. K. Singh1, Sunita Tanwar2 and C. S. Yadav3

This study analyzed the demography of investors in Gurgaon and its correlation with the investment pattern and criteria of investment.
The study analyses how customer think and evaluate the situation before investing in the shares in Indian stock market, and at the
same time it also tries to see that how customer behaves after investing in shares with market speculation and sentiments. This paper
tried to find out the awareness of the investors towards the various technical factors and their applications related to shares and share
market. A structured questionnaire was constructed in which each question pertains to specific task. A sample of sample size 250 was
taken of all investors in Gurgaon, HR. It is concluded that most of the investors in Gurgaon are male, youth, salaried, well educated
and have higher income. Youths have the extra funds to dispose as most of them were found between 20-30 years age group, have
higher income and hence have more fund at their disposal. The investors think some common things as fundamentals of company,
promoters, reputation and goodwill, quarterly result and dividend before investing. Mutual funds emerged as preferred choice among
investors. They used to sell shares generally when they required fund or when market is booming. Market is efficient as the investors
are well informed and the information is readily available.

Introduction Review of Literature

The number of investors in share market is increasing
now a day. This is due to the emergence of well
educated new generation who are well adapt in
technical as well as business administration. Now
day’s investors are younger and better aware of the
market and world as compared to their previous
generation. This study focuses on the demography of
the investors in Gurgaon and to see how efficiently
they react with market conditions. Investors are
generally seen as more risk prone individuals who are
looking for higher return. Investing in share market
is interesting, as one has to predict the market, which
depends upon many things such as information about
company, their planning, strategy, functioning etc. It is
obvious that it is not a completely analytical procedure
but very much involves subjective things also. It may
be the vision of the company, its promoter, reputation
and goodwill and many other things, which may
dominate an investor’s mind for investment.
Therefore this study tries to analyze the demography
of investors in Gurgaon and its correlation with
investment pattern of investors, the various criteria
considered by the investors while they go for
investing, the behavior of the investor in share market
in changing condition and at the same time also looks
into the efficiency of Indian stock market.
The movement of prices in the stock market is among
a few phenomena that have cut across the boundaries
of academic disciplines and have cumulative research
evidence spanning almost a century. Today the field of
financial market research seems to be at the exciting
stage of “crisis”, past results are being questioned, and
new solutions are being proposed. There seems to be
growing dissatisfaction among academic researchers
with the body of literature developed on the
assumption of market efficiency. It seems appropriate
at this point to take stock of the current literature in the
area of market efficiency and to identify the emerging
lines of thought.
Malcolm Baker and Jeffrey Wurgler (2007) studied
that Investor sentiment, how investor sentiment
affects the cross-section of stock returns. They predict
that a wave of investor sentiment has larger effects on
securities whose valuations are highly subjective and
difficult to arbitrage. One approach is “bottom up,”
using biases in individual investor psychology, such as
overconfidence, representative ness, and conservatism,
to explain how individual investors under react or
overreact to past returns or fundamentals. They take
the origin of investor sentiment as exogenous and
focus on its empirical effects. They show that it is quite
possible to measure investor sentiment and that waves

1
Department of Banking and Business Economics, UCCMS, M L Sukhadia University, Udaipur - 313001, Rajasthan, India
2&3
School of Management Studies, Ansal Institute of Technology, Gurgaon - 122003, Haryana, India
3
E-mail: romityadav@gmail.com
 72
of sentiment have clearly discernible, important, and
regular effects on individual firms and on the stock
market as a whole.
Shiller (1984) proposes an alternate model of
stock prices that recognizes the influence of social
psychology. He attributes the movements in stock
prices to social movements. Since there is no
objective evidence for predictions of stock prices, it is
suggested that the final opinion of individual investors
may largely reflect the opinion of a larger group. In
(1991) also investigates investor behavior during the
October 1987 crash. He concludes that it would be
wrong to interpret the crash as being due to a change
in public opinion about some fundamental economic
factor Thus, excessive volatility in the stock market
is often caused by social “fads” which may have very
little rational or logical explanation.
Seyhun (1990) shows that the 1987 crash was a
surprise to corporate insiders. Bates (1997) tests for
market expectations prior to the crash by looking
at S&P 500 futures options prices. Standard pricing
models imply that out of the money (OTM) puts trade
at a slight discount to OTM calls. However, OTM
puts were, at various times in 1987, priced higher than
OTM calls. This overpricing of OTM puts could only
imply an expectation of market crash or increased
market volatility if the market fell. The prices reveal
that the market expected a crash at the beginning
of 1987 or in mid-August, when in fact the market
actually peaked, and that there was no expectation of
a crash in the two months before October 19.
George-Marios Angeletos (2008) studied how rational
investors can have different degrees of optimism
regarding the prospects of the economy, even if they
share exactly the same information regarding all
economic fundamentals. This in turn has interesting
novel positive and normative implications for a wide
class of models that feature such complementarities: (i)
It can rationalize idiosyncratic investor sentiment. (ii)
It can be the source of significant heterogeneity in real
and financial investment choices, even in the absence
of any heterogeneity in individual characteristics
and despite the presence of a strong incentive to
coordinate on the same course of action. (iii) It can
sustain rich fluctuations in aggregate investment and
asset prices, including fluctuations that are smoother
than those often associated with multiple-equilibrium
models. (iv) It can capture the idea that investors learn
Asia-Pacific Business Review
slowly how to coordinate on a certain course of action.
(v) It can boost welfare. (vi) It can render apparent
coordination failures evidence of improved efficiency.
Sitikantha Pattanaik (2000) states that long-term
investors do get compensated for the systematic risk
they bear by holding equities. In the short to medium
run, however, both the direct and the indirect test
suggested by French et al., (1987) fail to establish the
expected risk-return relationship for Indian equities.
Dominance of short horizon players in the market and
the associated avoidable volatility in the equity market
obscures the implications of monetary for the equity
cost of capital in India.
Bernard Dumas et al., (2005) studied the trading
strategy that would allow an investor to take advantage
of “excessive” stock price volatility and “sentiment”
fluctuations and construct a general equilibrium model
of sentiment. They find that long maturity bonds are
an essential accompaniment of equity investment, as
they serve to hedge this “sentiment risk.” The answer
to the question posed in the title is: “There is little
that rational investors can do optimally to exploit, and
hence, eliminate excessive volatility, except in the
very long run.”
Andreas Ohler (2003) states that many investors
disproportionately hold on to losing stocks while
selling stocks, which have gained in value. This
systematic behavior is labeled the “disposition effect”.
The phenomenon can be explained by prospect theory’s
idea that subjects value gains and losses relative to a
reference point like the purchase price, and that they
are risk seeking in the domain of possible losses and
risk-averse when a certain gain is obtainable.
Therefore we see various developments in the stock
market but still the stock market is governed by
various factors, which directly or indirectly affect it.
There are still a lot of possibilities for exploring these
various factors, which governs investors mind, and so
do the stock market. Therefore the present study tries
to further explore the various factors, which affect
investment and the behavior of the investor.
Objectives
(i) To ascertain the investment preference with
regards to investment options available in the
market.
Vol. VI, No. 2, April - June 2010

(ii) To assess the factors influencing the investors
regarding the investment decision.
(iii) To find the level of satisfaction with regards to the
choice of investment.
(iv) To help investors and companies to understand
the various trends of share market investment.
Research Design
The research will be empirical in nature as it analyze
the demography of investors and its correlation to
the investment pattern of investors, various criteria
adopted by investors and its behavior while investing
in the share market and the applicability of Efficient
Market Hypothesis on Indian share market. The
research design will mainly consist of four parts.
Sample Design
Sample unit: All the share market investors in
Gurgaon, India
Sample size: 250
For the collection of primary data, all the share market
investors in Gurgaon will be taken as sample unit.
Survey Design
For survey of all the investors in Gurgaon, a
structured questionnaire consisting 11 questions was
prepared where each question measures the specific
attribute associated with investors. The questionnaire
was consisting of some objective questions, rank
based questions and open-ended questions. The
questionnaire is given in the annexure. The data were
collected mainly at the brokerage houses.
Data Analysis
Techniques: Paired-Comparison technique
The primary data will be analyzed according to the
scaling used in the questionnaire. The questions
based on nominal scale were analyzed through
tabulation, percentage sharing and pie charts. The
data based on ranking scale were analyzed through
paired-comparison test to know actual preferences
Table 3: Professions wise Distribution of Investors
Profession Student Salaried without Family Salaried with Family Businessman
Investors 30 115
© Asia-Pacific Institute of Management, New Delhi
73
of investors. Open-ended responses were analyzed
through quantification of data by measuring different
investor’s responses for a particular criterion.
Data Analysis
Gender wise Distribution of Investors
According to the survey of investors in Gurgaon,
it was heartening to observe that very few female
investors invest in the share market. Out of total 250
respondents, only 15 female investors have been
found.
Table 1: Gender wise Distribution of Investors
Gender Male Female
Investors 235 15
According to the data, the figure is very much
dominating by male counterparts. Out of total 250
respondents, only 15 were female.
It is found that 94% of the investors are male. Female
just constituted 6% of the total sample size. It showed
that the male counterparts dominate share market in
Gurgaon.
Age wise Distribution of Investors
Table 2: Age wise Distribution of Investors
Age (Yr) Below 20 20-30 30-40 40-50 50-60 Above 60
Investors 10 180 45 10 5 0
From the pie chart given above, it showed that 72%
of the investors fall between 20-30 years of age. It is
found that most of the investors in Gurgaon are youth.
According to previous data, most of these youth found
male.
Profession wise Distribution of Investors
To get the information about the profession of
the investor, six options have been given in the
questionnaire, which are following.
Retired HW
75 20 10 0
 74
It can be seen from the chart that 76% of the investors
are salaried. Salaried without family found more than
salaried with family but together they found to have
the big chunk of the pie. Next came to student with
12%, which found to be youth again.
Income wise Distribution of Investors
It can be seen here that average investors have the
income on higher side as around 5 lacs and above. Out
of 250 investors, 85 investors came to this category,
which shows that they constitute a big chunk in the pie
Table 4: Income wise Distribution of Investors
Income (lacs) Upto 1.0 1.0-1.5 1.5-2.5
Investors 0 0 25
Preference for Investing
In this part, it was asked by the investors, that if they
have the money to invest then how they would prefer
to invest their money. The ten options were given
which are given below and the investors were suppose
to rank them in order of their preference starting from
1 to 10 and if any of the investor had not selected the
option for ranking, then all those unselected options
were given the rank 11 which will show neglected.
The 10 options are as follows
A. Bank F. Real Estate
B. Provident Fund G. NSC
C. Fixed Deposits H. Mutual Funds
D. Insurance I. Shares
E. Gold J. Others…
In this way, an idea can be developed about the average
risk proneness of investors as well as some idea about
individual preferences. This will give a bigger picture
of the mind of investor and his investment pattern.
Now a matrix of each 10 option was formed as shown
below. The data has been analyzed through paired
comparison technique. In this technique, at first we put
all the options in first row as well as first column of 11
× 11 matrix. In this case all the ten options as shown
above are given the symbols as English alphabets
as A, B, C etc. Options in the columns are preferred
options over rows.
Asia-Pacific Business Review
as shown in the figure below.
It can be seen here that 16% of the investors are having
income more than 3.5 lacs. 18% of the investors are
having income more than 6 lacs per annum. It was
found that the investor, who invests in share market,
generally considered as more risky, poised to get more
return as well. This may be the reason that average
investor found to have more than average income. As
it has seen that most investors are youth. From this it
can be interpret that most of these youths are on higher
side of income.
2.5-3.5 3.5-5.0 5.0-6.0 Above 6.0
55 40 85 45
For example, option A in the column is preferred
over B by 22 investors. In the same way option B is
preferred over A by 6 investors.
After this, all the 45 combinations are considered
again simultaneously as ‘A over B’ and ‘B over A’ is
considered simultaneously. Now these two options
are considered and according to the above matrix,
the option with comparatively high value has been
awarded 1 point and the option with low value has
been awarded 0 point.
Finally the ranking of various options emerges as
follows:
1. Mutual Funds 6. Fixed Deposits
2. Shares 7. Bank
3. Gold 8. Provident Fund
4. Real States 9. NSC
5. Insurance 10. Others
Therefore it was found that Mutual fund has been
the most preferred choice among investors. It found
to be preceded by the Shares, which is preferred next
to mutual Funds. Mutual Funds generally save the
investor time and various hassles.
Mutual Funds comprised of best practiced and
knowledgeable people who have a vast experience in
the share market and who are quite technical savvy as
well. They give optimum return with low risk portfolio
Vol. VI, No. 2, April - June 2010
 75

Table 6: Paired Comparison Matrix

A B C D E F G H I J
A 30 100 85 90 105 60 225 215 0
B 110 95 100 115 125 50 240 230 0
C 100 25 85 100 110 40 215 205 0
D 80 30 70 95 120 45 220 205 0
E 50 30 80 80 90 35 225 215 0
F 45 35 45 65 95 40 215 215 0
G 80 40 105 90 55 125 235 230 0
H 15 5 25 25 15 15 5 95 0
I 15 10 30 15 10 25 0 150 0
J 250 250 250 250 250 250 250 250 250

Table 7: Paired Comparison Matrix in 1’s and 0’s

A B C D E F G H I J
A 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0
B 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0
C 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0
D 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0
E 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0
F 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0
G 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0
H 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
I 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
J 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Total 3 2 4 5 7 6 2 9 8 0

although it depends upon investor preference as what
is the investor preference about risk and what sort of
portfolio he or she desires accordingly.
Share market, which came next to Mutual funds. It is
quite well known investment but it requires time and
effort of a retail investor to get the required return.
Shares were found to be risky investment but so it
also used to give the good return accordingly. A more
risk prone investor found to go for shares as it is quite
evident from the data above.
Third preference went to Gold, which is the most
traditional way of investment. Even in the today’s
modern world, it stood at the 3rd rank, which shows
it’s standing in as important mean to investment.
Gold found to be considered the good investment
mean because it can easily liquidated and its values
generally increasing continuously and sometimes it
shoots up very high.
Fourth preference came to Real Estate. Real Estate
also found to give high return and it is quite famous
in Gurgaon as Gurgaon has the housing crises. Many
people from different parts of India are coming to
Gurgaon for job and business. It is due to the booming
development of Gurgaon as many multinational firms
are coming here. It is further due to the proximity of
Gurgaon to New Delhi, which is the capital of India.

© Asia-Pacific Institute of Management, New Delhi

 76
Insurance, FDs and Bank came as 5th, 6th & 7th
option respectively. These all are quite secure options.
Therefore it may be bit difficult for investors to
differentiate between these options.
PF and NSC came at the last together as both got same
ranking. They are generally preferred as most secure
assets. Therefore average risk prone investors would
go for these options in the last. ‘Other’ option always
came at the last, which shows that whatsoever it was,
investors considered them as least preferred.
Size of Portfolio
Since this question was open-ended, many responses
came. Therefore all the responses were divided into
six groups accordingly as shown below.
1. 0-5 stocks 4. 16-20 stocks
2. 6-10 stocks 5. 21-25 stocks
3. 11-15 stocks 6. Above 25 stocks
This question was asked to get an idea about the
investor’s portfolio size. Investor with high number
of shares in his/her portfolio shows his/her greater
investment in shares and more inclination in share
market.
Table 8: Distribution of Stocks among Investors
Stocks 0-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 21-25 Above 25
Investors 60 40 85 20 20 25
Therefore according to the data, it can be seen that
most of the investors are rich in the stock portfolio as
Table 9: Investment Criteria of Investors
S.No Responses
1 Fundamentals of the company should be strong
2 Strong Promoters
3 Past records and quarterly result
4 Reputation and Goodwill
5 Products of the company and its potential
6 P/E ratio, EPS etc.
7 Dividends
8 FII’s Holding, Capital Structure
9 Sectoral View
Asia-Pacific Business Review
they hold more than 10 shares. It was also found that
some investors have the stocks of more than 30. One
particular investor stated that he never sell shares as
he consider them as pure asset. It can be seen that 60%
of the investors are having the shares more than 10 in
their stock bank.
It was also asked by the investors to write their ‘type
of stocks’ they acquired presently. These stocks are
categorized industry wise as IT, Banking, Real estate
etc. Generally, the stocks were found in the following
category in their portfolio.
1. Real estate 3. IT sectors
2. Banking 4. Pharma
These were the most popular industries where the
investors are putting their money. Generally real estate
found the first choice among investors presently,
followed by banks and telecom respectively.
Most of the investors found to have more then 10
stocks in their portfolio. It can be interpret that they
are putting handsome amount in the share market.
Real estate came as the preferred choice but it can’t be
taken as such. Type of stocks in the portfolio depends
entirely upon the market behavior and conditions.
Investment Criteria of Investors
The response of this question weighs much in respect
to gauging the investors. The responses were very
much common. These responses are given below
along with the number of respondents who had given
the particular response. The data is tabulated and is
following:
Investors %
240 96
205 82
230 92
210 84
200 80
135 54
120 48
135 54
120 48
Vol. VI, No. 2, April - June 2010

According to the above data and graph, a clear line
of demarcation can be visualized between 5th and
6th response. All the responses from 1 to 5 given by
more than 80% of the investors while all the responses
between 6 to 9 found to be given by less than 55%
of the investors. Therefore according to the above
findings, the responses can be divided into two parts,
prominent response and supporting response.
Prominent responses were the one, which were given,
by most of the investors and they account heavily
while go for investing. Supporting responses was the
one for which the investor go when the prominent
consideration is over.
Selling Behavior of Investors
This question was asked to know the behavior pattern
of the investor. Four options had been given for this
question, which are follows
1. When market is up
2. When market is stable
3. When market is down
4. Others
Table 10: Selling Behavior of Investors
Options Up Stable Down Other
Investors 160 - - 90
The responses were more for first option ‘When market
is up’. It was suppose to be the obvious choice also
because every investor would like to sell share when
the market is up so that he or she can get maximum
advantage.
Here it can be seen that 44% of the investors have
other criteria for selling their share, which shows that
only the ‘market is up’ condition is not enough for the
investors to decide that they should sell their shares.
They have other considerations as well, which are
quite dominant as we discussed above for selling their
shares.
The most common thing was found that investors
would sell shares when market is up. Out of ‘other’
responses, it was found that investors are generally
preferred to sell their shares when they require fun.
It was also found that investors like to sell their
© Asia-Pacific Institute of Management, New Delhi
77
shares when they found that price is continuously
plummeting and there is hope of recovery.
Buying Behavior of Investors
This was an important question to find out that how
many investors go for that option ‘when market is
down’ as it was suppose to be an obvious choice. Four
choices had been given as in previous question, which
are following.
1. When market is up
2. When market is stable
3. When market is down
4. Other
Table 11: Buying Behavior of Investors
Options Up Stable Down Other
Investors - - 195 55
It can be seen here that responses are overwhelmingly
for the factor ‘when market is down’. It was supposed
to be an obvious choice, as the investors would like
to buy the shares when market is down. They have to
pay less and then they try to dispose the shares when
market is up. That’s such a response came for this
specific question.
Here it can be seen that 78% of the investors went for
the option ‘when market is down’ and 22% went for
other option some of which again quite resemble to
the ‘market is down’ option.
There were few responses for other options as well
which are following
(i) Anytime
(ii) When below average
The first consideration found to be that investor would
buy shares when market is down. Other thing was
found that investors could buy shares anytime. This
could be interpreted that whenever investors have the
fund they would like to buy share even they may not
be considered very good choice but reasonable.
Risk Consideration
This question was asked to know about the weight
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age, the investors give to the risk factors associated
with shares. This measure the important consideration
taken by investors towards risk associated with shares.
To measure this, four options had been given which
are following.
1. Marginal risk
2. Moderate risk
3. Heavy risk
4. Other
Table 12: Risk Consideration
Risk Marginal Moderate Heavy Other
Investors 40 120 75 15
From the above result, it is quite evident that most
of the investors give medium weight age to risk
associated with shares before investing in the share
market. There are also few investors, who are giving
less weight age to risk before investing.
It found that most of the investors consider risk in
moderate way while investing in the shares. This
shows that risk is given good consideration by
investors while investing in shares. Therefore it found
that average investors are more risk prone and they are
willing to take high risk before investing in the share
market.
Required Return Type
This is evidently quite an important question asked to
investors that what sort of return they are looking for.
Return of shares is of two types, dividend and change
in share price.
Now let’s see the findings about this. For this question,
four options had been given which are following.
1. Dividend
2. Share Price
3. Dividend and share price
4. Other
The ‘other’ option is given for, to find out some other
view, which investors might consider in determining
the return they are looking for.
Asia-Pacific Business Review
Table 13: Required Return Type
Dividend
Share
Return Dividend & Share Other
Price
Price
Investors 15 90 120 25
It found that the responses are tremendously towards
the both ‘dividend and share price’ option therefore it
can be interpreted that most investors are looking for
dividend and share price.
It was also found that some people are interested in
dividend only. This may be the case of old people
and retired person who wants fixed income at the
same time, there were also few young guys who were
interested in dividend only.
This shows that investors have already pre planned
to get the return, which is around 15-20%. The return
should be hovering over this range. If it is more than
this, it is fine but if it is less than this, than few changes
in portfolio is required.
Awareness of Financial Terms
This question was there to know about the investor’s
technical side while investing in the share market.
It gives an idea that how many investors are really
looked into some technical factors while go for
investing.
Table 14: Awareness of Financial Terms
Awareness about beta Yes No
Investors 230 20
Here it found that around 92% of the investors are
aware of the beta factor associated with the shares. It
shows that they have some insights about the basic
technicalities of the shares. This is a good thing,
as it will help to make the market more efficient. It
can further be seen from the findings that most of
the investors are from management and commerce
background. This shows that investors are better
informed and well educated while go for investing.
They are aware of main technical terms and concepts
while go for investing.
Vol. VI, No. 2, April - June 2010

Table 15: Qualification of Investors
Stream Arts Science Commerce
Investors 25 5 55
Qualification of Investors
This question was asked to get an idea about the
background of the investor. This gives an idea that
how much really an investor better prepared with
technicalities and how much he is applying on them.
This also shows the expectation, which can make the
market more efficient. The options are follows:
•  Arts •  Science
•  Commerce •  Engineering
•  Management •  IT/Computer
•  Medical •  Other
It was found that investors are well educated, better
informed and techno savvy. Further they are youth,
which shows generally more risk prone individual,
energetic and innovative. All these things are helping
the market to be more efficient. It is further good for
share market and its development where competition
will be healthy and market speculations will be low.
Overall it’s promising for the future of Indian share
market.
Conclusion
(i) The market is very much dominated by the males
as it was found that only 6% females out of total
sample size are investing in the market. (Refer
to “Gender wise Distribution of Investors”).
Even out of those few ladies, very few were as
well as compared to their male counterpart with
respect to information about the share market
and awareness about the related technicalities.
(ii) It was found that now most of the investors are
youth as 72% of the investors lie between the
age group of 20-30 years old. (Refer to “Age
wise Distribution of Investors”). Youths have
more energy, application of various ideas, high-
risk propensity and innovation, which is very
beneficial for the Indian share market.
(iii) The income of the investors were found to be
© Asia-Pacific Institute of Management, New Delhi
79
Engg. Mgmt IT/Com Medical Other
10 145 10 - -
on higher side of average income prevailed in
India as 68% of the investors are having income
more than 3.5 lacs. (Refer to “Income wise
Distribution of Investors”). It was found earlier
that most of the investors are youth, they have
more funds at their disposal, they are more risk
prone, having least responsibility and therefore
they are investing handsomely to get good
return.
(iv) Mutual fund seems to getting popularity in
Gurgaon as it emerges as the first choice among
investors. (Refer to “Preference for Investing”).
Although it shows that many investors want
some secure money in case of some unrealistic
changes.
(v) Share market requires more and more experience
to invest efficiently and getting good return, this
is a good sign, which show that more people
are attracting towards the market, which will
increase the competition and make the market
more efficient.
(vi) Investors generally found to have 5 to 15 stocks
in their portfolio (Refer to “Size of Portfolio”)
At the same time they are investing handsomely
shows that the size of portfolio is small in terms
of number but large in terms of investment. It
shows that investors are careful while selecting
the shares and once it selected, they invest good
amount on it.
(vii) Before buying the shares, the investors used
to see the fundamentals of the company. This
criterion found to be at the top and very common
among investors as 96% of the investors
supported this (Refer to “Investment Criteria
for Investors”). Strong fundamentals support
the company in long run. After this the investors
used to see the promoters, reputation, goodwill
that helps in maintaining the credibility.
(viii) Selling of shares is generally happens when
market is really up or when the investor require
 80
fund (Refer to “Selling Behavior of Investors”).
There are also some investors whose ideology is
that they never sell the shares.
(ix) Buying of shares takes place when market is
down and it was found to be very popular choice
among the investors (Refer to “Buying Behavior
of Investors”). It led the investors to create
difference between share prices.
(x) Mostly the investors were found to be from
management background as 58% investors
fell to this group (Refer to “Qualification
of Investors”). It shows that more investors
are now better educated, well informed and
techno savvy. All these things together are very
promising for the future of Indian share market.
Recommendations
• Female participation in the share market was
found to be very low. Their participation might
bring some new concept and innovation which
in future might be prove quite useful. The
government and SEBI suppose to give some
incentives to the female so that the share market
became more lucrative towards woman.
• Most of the people in India are not aware of the
trading in share market. The non awareness of the
share market can be removed by simplification
of the procedure, getting them aware about
procedure and letting them know its fruitfulness.
This will help tremendously in getting people
educated about the Indian share market.
• Indian investors are still not educated as their
counterparts in Japan, USA, UK, etc. Their
portfolios are not efficient. Most investors are
going with market sentiments and speculations.
This need to be came down. Making the various
theories more practical, efficient, simple can do
this and easily applicable so that retail investor
can easily apply that and get benefitted. Various
experts, educationist and students need to work
on this.
Asia-Pacific Business Review
• Investment criteria in Share market are still a
researchable problem because it is easily affected
by changes in place, demography, culture, and
political and economical environment. So the
researchers have further scope in this area.
References
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Vol. VI, No. 2, April - June 2010