A PILOT STUDY ON CHANGING INVESTMENT PREFERENCES AND STOCK MARKET PARTICIPATION AMONG RETAIL INVESTORS IN PUNE CITY AFTER COVID-19
Keywords:
COVID-19, retail investors, investment preferences, stock market participation, Pune, mutual funds, cryptocurrency, equity, behavioural finance.Abstract
The pilot study investigates how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed retail investors in Pune Maharashtra their stock market investment choices and their stock market participation patterns. The study used a structured questionnaire to collect data from 120 respondents who were selected through purposive sampling to measure their shifts in attitude and behavior between seven different investment instruments which included equity shares mutual funds fixed deposits real estate gold and commodities cryptocurrency and government bonds. The study results show that investors have shifted their investment focus from traditional safe-haven assets which include fixed deposits and real estate to market-linked instruments that include mutual funds and equities and most notably cryptocurrency. The data show that younger investors have experienced a complete industry transformation because of pandemic-related digital adoption and rising financial knowledge and the current state of low interest rates and their increased willingness to take risks. The paper delivers its final results which show their significance to financial educators and market regulators and retail-investor advisory services.