Taking stock 

BENGALURU: Every  morning, Shruti Kapur Malhal, partner with a luxury floral boutique brand, begins her day by gleaning through financial newspapers which is followed by tracking the markets as soon as they open. Malhal, who is part of Millennium Mams, a group that studies equity markets, started investing in stocks and shares a month ago. Like Malhal, several women have taken to learning and investing in the stock market in these unprecedented times. In fact, finance experts find a spike in the number joining classes to get a first-hand understanding of the goings-on of the market, once considered a man’s domain. “It is more about understanding the company you are investing in. It’s a patient game.

Being an informed investor can give you better returns than following market trends. I am going after good wealth and am investing in companies that have a good promoter base, intellectual properties and government backing,” says Malhal, who also cautions against blindly investing without research and calculation that can put an investor at risk.

Currently doing options trading in the US, social media influencer Sphurti Dixit feels women want to become financially independent, especially with the pandemic sounding off alarm bells on the job market. “Trading and investing in stocks is still considered a taboo in India. Which is why I’m using my YouTube channel to tell people the importance of financial literacy,” says Dixit, a technical project manager, whose mother-in- law (65), is investing in stocks after understanding the benefits.

Ritvik Vipin, co-founder of Havenspire, a community learning startup, which educates people on the markets, finds that a lot of working professionals are now taking a plunge into investment and trading. “We have witnessed a rise in the enquiries regarding stock markets, especially from women. Out of 10 enquiries, at least eight join our course,” says Vipin After losing her teaching job last year during the first wave of the pandemic, Florence Rundlett is now planning to invest in stocks to re-gain financial stability. “There were financial issues after I lost my job which is when I thought of investing in stocks.

I am now earning through online tuition and at the same time attending online community classes on stock markets and investments,” says Rundlett, who is now preparing notes to decided where to put her money. Although the market has not been looking up during the pandemic, Sowmya D, an IT professional, believes that as an investor one has to be cued in to the goings-on. “I want to trade in stocks because we never know what is going to happen in times like these. Having an alternate option is good. Once I learnt the complete dynamics of trading, I will definitely quit my job and take it up full time,” says Soumya.