Retail investors eye Budget 2021 with lot of hope: 3 expectations from the Finance Minister
With an economy that is gradually reviving from a COVID-induced slump, all eyes will be on the Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, who will present the Union Budget on February 1. January 12, 2021 / 10:30 AM IST
The year 2020 was a roller coaster ride for investors, but benchmark indices managed to close the show with handsome return of about 15 percent each. The big winners of 2020 were the small & midcaps which will continue to remain in focus in 2021, suggest experts.
Despite a muted Budget for the stock market in the year 2020, retail investors jumped on D-Street. Data suggest that about 10 million new Demat accounts were opened last year amid the coronavirus outbreak which gave retail investors the extra time to study and manage stocks, according to media reports.
New retail investors are from Tier II and III cities, demat accounts see a spike
According to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), close to 6.3 million new DEMAT accounts were opened in the last 9 months, tallying the total count to 44.46 million.
Market
The year 2020 will go down as a year when the world was brought to its knees by a tiny microbe that left a trail of death and destruction, devastating economies but it will also be the year when human enterprise and science offered hope in otherwise a trying time.
Markets, too, have had their share of the good, the bad and the ugly. Retail investors are a happy lot and more so those who entered the D-Street in 2020. The Nifty50 has already rallied more than 11 percent this year to record highs from March lows it has jumped more than 70 percent.