Investment Guide

The domestic stock markets are trading in a range since the last few months. There is strong support at lower price levels in the markets. However, there are several concerns that are keeping the upside capped, and as a result, the markets are volatile in a range.

From a macroeconomic perspective, persistent high inflation is one of the prime concerns fuelling negative sentiments in the markets. The Reserve Bank of India ( RBI )) has increased the key interest rates to control inflation and as a result the potential of debt instruments has gone up. The uncertainty in the global markets is fuelling volatility in the commodity and currency markets.

These are some strategies for investors in the current market conditions:

For an investor, change is a constant factor, and hence, what was good in the year 2000 need not be good a decade later. Similarly, what helped the investor make money in his 30s need not be replicated when he turns 60. There are different ways of managing change and adherence to these simple steps will help an investor in change management.

Here are some tips:

Re-visit goals at regular intervals

This is probably the easiest thing to do in finance management as we all know what we need. For instance, when we begin our career life, we are happy with a single car and a nice little flat/house. The necessity for both grows in size with age and more importantly, it is an affordable dream in many cases.

The domestic markets went through a further consolidation and correction last week, mainly due to the disappointing industrial output data and weak global cues. The high inflation number for the month of June fuelled negative sentiments in the markets. The markets also had a bounce-back in the middle of the week on the back of expectations of another round of quantitative easing (QE3) in the US, which will result in further inflows for the domestic markets from global investors.