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Tezzbuzz Desk – When there is a sharp fall in the shares of big companies in the stock market, it usually creates an atmosphere of fear among the investors. But in the June quarter, retail investors adopted exactly the opposite strategy. When foreign investors were selling shares of big companies, small investors considered the falling prices as a buying opportunity. According to the data, retail investors have invested around Rs. 1 lakh in blue chip companies like Reliance Industries, Infosys, TCS, Wipro, HCL Technologies and ITC. Rs 17,914 crore Most interest in this purchase was seen in IT sector companies. Of the total purchases of around Rs 17,914 crore, around Rs 12,230 crore was invested in Infosys, TCS, Wipro and HCL Technologies. Retail investors invested about Rs 3,864 crore in Infosys, while Rs 3,764 crore were invested in Reliance Industries and Rs 3,291 crore in TCS. The special thing is that during this period there was a significant decline in the shares of these companies.

Shares of Infosys and HCL Tech had fallen by about 20 percent during the June quarter. At the same time, a decline of about 14 percent was recorded in TCS and about 9 percent in Wipro. Shares of Reliance Industries and ITC also remained under pressure. Despite this, instead of staying away from these shares, retail investors thought it better to buy at falling prices. This is being seen as a 'contra bet' in the market i.e. a strategy to move away from the crowd and invest. The most interesting aspect of this whole story is the different strategies of foreign institutional investors i.e. FIIs and retail investors. Reliance Industries is a big example of this. While foreign investors sold Reliance shares worth about Rs 26,011 crore in the June quarter, small investors increased their stake in this decline. Similarly, in Wipro, domestic institutional investors and mutual funds sold shares worth more than Rs 11 thousand crore, but retail investors bought shares worth about Rs 3,152 crore.

The number of new small investors in these companies also increased. During this period, about 4.08 lakh new shareholders joined in Wipro, 2.20 lakh in Reliance and 2.04 lakh in Infosys. This shows that even in the falling market, common investors continue to have faith in companies with big and established businesses. However, the opinion of experts is not completely positive about this purchase. Market experts are advising caution especially regarding the IT sector. Indian IT companies are heavily dependent on foreign markets like America and Europe and the companies there are currently cautious about spending. Apart from this, due to the increasing influence of Artificial Intelligence, there is uncertainty regarding the business model of IT companies.

HSBC has considered the valuations of Indian IT companies attractive, but has described the upside potential as limited. Christy Mathai, fund manager of Quantum Mutual Fund, believes that many large-cap stocks are still at cheap levels compared to their long-term average valuations. However, the figures from Prime Database are also a warning for investors. The shares sold by retail investors gave an average return of 35.79 per cent, while the shares bought gave an average return of 24 per cent. In such a situation, how successful the bet of about Rs 18 thousand crore of retail investors will be in future will depend on the earnings of the companies and the direction of the market.