If you had invested Rs 1 lakh in Siemens shares in January this year, nearly two-third of this investment would have been wiped out by this time. Shares of this multinational company have fallen from Rs 2,087 to Rs 672 since mid-January, a decline of 67.8 per cent. The story is the same in most of the blue chips — only the magnitude of the fall varies. Yes, Dalal Street investors, who were expecting a repeat of the spectacular bull run of 2007, are perplexed, worried and disappointed. The Bombay Stock Exchange’s (BSE) widely tracked benchmark 30-share Sensitive Index (Sensex) has dropped 9.1 per cent over the week, its biggest such fall in almost two years. In 2008 so far, it has lost 21.25 per cent and shed over 5,000 points to fall below 16,000, worrying the investor community.The mood is downbeat on the street. “There are hardly any fresh investments in the markets at this level. People are now tired of buying. Investors who had been holding their stocks for the last one-two years are now disappointed,” said Karvy Stock Broking Ltd vice-president Ambareesh Baliga. For stock investors, the last few weeks have been painful. After the big bang returns of 2007 that saw the Sensex soaring by 47 per cent, investors are staring at losses in 2008.This phenomenon is not, however, restricted to India alone. Markets in China, Brazil, Korea and the like are suffering the same hammering. The global rout is being spearheaded by the US market, which is now at an 18-month low. “Indian equity markets are behaving in line with the global markets. Falls in indices have been registered across the world and that is what is happening in India too. Retail investors should not try to time the market in such a volatile scenario,” said Anand Rathi Securities Pvt Ltd director Amit Rathi.Bad news has been coming from the US economy, which dominates the global economy. And the question no longer appears to be ‘Is the US going into a recession?’ but rather ‘How long and deep it will be?’
