Perception of Retail Investors towards Capital Market – A Study

Abstract: Market facilitates the trade of goods and services. Similarly, financial market facilitates the sale and purchase of financial assets/instruments. And the financial market comprises two major markets viz., capital market and money market. Capital market is important for mobilizing funds for capital formation and investments, and forms a very vital link for economic development of any country. It (i.e., capital market) provides ways for issuers to mobilize capital from investor. The primary objective of the study is to assess and analyse the level of awareness among the respondents about capital market operations and different investment avenues. The study is based on the data/material collected from both primary and secondary sources. Random sampling method is used to select the respondents. And the sample size is 100 selected from different categories of investors and investment advisors. The major findings of the study are majority of the respondents prefer life insurance policies and bank deposit schemes for their investment. Real estate, gold, government bond and co-operative societies (shares) are also preferred investment avenues. Majority of the respondents are investing for medium (1 – 3 years) to long term (3 years and more). And the remaining is investing for less-than one-year period. Finally the outcome of the research is concluded as follows The retail investors from Shivamogga city have certain problems as can be seen other parts of the state/country. In spite of these problems, investment in capital market is slowly picking up. While knowledgeable investors have remained in the market for long, others forget it and exit. This situation has to improve.