Money9 Survey: Over 58% investors held on to their portfolios after stock market crash
The poll results revealed that about one-fourth of the investors panicked and sold their holdings during the market crash last year, an overwhelming majority held on to their portfolios
The coronavirus-induced lockdowns had a major impact on our financial decisions. Based on Girish Ganaraj’s column, Money9 commissioned a poll on Twitter to gauge how you tackled the disruptions which affected your wallet.
The poll results revealed that about one-fourth of the investors panicked and sold their holdings during the market crash last year, an overwhelming majority held on to their portfolios. The survey took seven real-life situations that most of us may have faced during the pandemic .
In what may be seen as a sign of rising financial awareness among investors, 58.6% of the respondents said that they held on to their portfolios last year, while 24.1% sold their holdings at a loss.
On the other hand, 17.2% investors stopped their SIPs/STPs and waited for recovery. Spooked by the first wave of Covid-19 infections in March last year, stock markets crashed by approximately 30% from their January-February highs. In October 2020, even after the markets recovered from its March lows, 54% of the investors still kept their investments intact while 38.5% kept their money in safe assets and 7.7% put debt funds in equity.
To tide over the cash crunch due to salary cuts, 36.4% of the respondents had to depend on credit cards and personal loans, 50% looked up to short-term funds and 13.6% had to borrow from EPF.
Following the Franklin Templeton fiasco in April 2020, one-third of the respondents removed high risk funds from their portfolio and a similar fraction stuck to big MF names and moved to FDs.
Since discretionary expenses came down drastically during the lockdown, 41.7% respondents used this surplus to increase their health cover, over 33% started investing in equities, while 25% shore up their emergency funds.
Realising the need to upgrade their professional skills, 50% of the respondents spent on upskilling while 30% waited for employers to help while 20% didn’t feel the need.
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