This was the second webinar under the COVID series started on 30th May. In the first webinar, we discussed career, employment and entrepreneurship in COVID times. We received a lot of interesting insights on how people whose professions have been affected by COVID-19 can rebuild and regain their professional mileage and continue earning money.
See more about the first part here: Thriving in COVID World – Future Workspace
We have discussed the income part already in the first Webinar. Thus, naturally in the second part, we should address the concerns of those with income. In this part of the COVID webinar we discussed the three aspects of money management in challenging times:
- What do we do with our existing investments?
- How to ensure survival through the pandemic without affecting our wealth too much?
- What are the next major investment opportunities in these times?
Recent Events & Developments
Even before COVID-19 has set foot on the global or national stage, major market-moving events were happening in India. Let’s have a look at few of these events, some of which did not get sufficient limelight.
- Stock markets started tumbling as the lockdown measures became tighter. Nifty went below 8000 along with the fall in trade volumes.
- But since then the markets have been rising consistently along with the trade volume
- Real estate experienced a dramatic shift in usage efficiency. It moved from daytime commercial and nighttime residential units to only residential units throughout
- We saw large scale debt investment losses due to unexpected defaults of large debtors, i.e. IL&FS, DHFL, PMC Bank, before COVID
- These defaults had affected thousands but the publicity around them had been low
- We have seen the rise of trading apps recently. These apps range from the traditional buy, sell, stop-loss apps to algorithmic trading applications
Questions in General
These developments have raised a few questions for all the investors. For example,
- Does the index rise indicate a positive market sentiment and investor confidence?
- What is the future for real estate, especially the commercial real estate investments?
- How does the FMP disaster affect the future decisions of investors and suggestions of the advisors?
- Are there alternate modes of investments people can look up to?
- Is algorithmic trading effective? Can it work as a long-term wealth generation tool?
Audience Questions
- Should you increase or decrease your equity mutual fund investments in these times?
- Shouldn’t we buy stocks now since they are undervalued?
- I have a few FDs I’d like to reinvest for better returns over 1 to 3 years horizon?
- Have we seen the bottom of the market or the worst is yet to come?
- What are the differences between buying real estate for personal use and for investment?
- In oil and gas sector, the price of crude is going down but upstream companies are in a better position whereas downstream companies are performing bad, this is totally opposite than the relationship they had with crude oil prices, why is it so?
- Is it a good time to invest in ETFs based on global indices?
- How to choose stocks for long-term investment?
- Any other alternative investments team can suggest?
Speakers & Experts
Do share your feedback, questions and suggestions in the comment section below.