Safe Play

While negotiations and arguments are still on if we are in the red zone of recession or not, one thing is for sure, the city is playing safe with money. Specially when it comes to investments. While ULIPS and mutual funds were last year8217;s 8216;in-thing to invest, this year preferences have shifted to relatively safer options. 8220;What8217;s taken over instead are conventional policies like money back, which are low on risk, as well as profit,8221; Gagandeep Arora, development officer with Life Insurance Company for the last year 10 years, tells us adding that Unit-Linked Insurance Plans have seen a downfall of about 70 per cent from the last financial year. Besides, with Sensex around 10 K and with signs of dipping further, shares and mutual funds hold limited appeal, feels Kajal Ahuja, a homemaker, who joined in with her husband in investments at 21K mark. But now having lost a lot of money and a salary cut due from next month, Ahuja is opting for basic fixed deposits at nine to ten per cent return.

The latest entrants into the world of investment, the youth, whom we spotted trading online every now and then at city cyber cafes about a few months back, too have retracted. Mannat Mundi and Prerna, two final-year students, are now putting in parts of their pocket moneys in recurring deposits. 8220;Though it gives only about eight per cent returns, at least they are assured,8221; they chorus. As for friends Swati Kukreja and Umanshi Bhalla, gold is what they are opting for. 8220;A girl8217;s best friend, it can always be traded for more or less the same amount,8221; quip the duo.

Speculative market and deteriorating economy is also forcing many to put a freeze on heavy investments. 8220;With uncertainty of life and business increasing, apart from insurance and tax savers, I am not putting money in anything else,8221; says Karan Kapoor, an industrialist, whose only other investment is a plot on the periphery of Chandigarh. 8220;Flats have shown a comparatively poor response. While some builders are now giving heavy discounts, others have just stopped construction,8221; he says.

The share market having given returns of over 40 per cent to investors in the past, the average fall in business of agents in Chandigarh is 50 per cent this year, lists Inderjeet Singh Kalra, an investment advisor, who says that the market sentiment is holding people back. 8220;For someone who has the ability to hold shares and mutual funds for more than three to five years, investment in large cap stocks like Reliance, BHCL will still give profits. Specially because now they can be purchased for a reasonable amount, but then they are still not buying,8221; Karla reels his observation, emphasising that now people just want to wait and watch. Priyanka Malhotra, a management teacher, too agrees, 8220;This is one time when everyone is maintaining their portfolio with utter caution. Leave alone the middle-income segment, the rich too are averse to anything associated with risk.8221; Well what can we say, play safe!