Gold zooms 15%, stock wealth tardy
Gold has sparkled for investors, having given them handsome 15 per cent returns in the past one year period to September, while contribution from stocks to their kitty has remained almost negligible during the same period.
Also, the government and Reserve Bank have been urging investors recently to deploy their capital in instruments like stocks and mutual funds, rather than keeping them in idle assets like gold.
Gold has appreciated from Rs 27,400 level in early September of 2011 to a record of over Rs 32,000 level at present.
A comparative analysis of equity market trends shows that the combined investor wealth of all categories of shareholders across nearly 3,000 stocks has hardly budged from around Rs 62 lakh crore-mark in the 12-month period ended September 7.
With savvy investors taking exposure of the stock market through mutual fund route as well, the stagnant prices of shares reflect in the net asset values of around half of the 350-odd equity funds which have failed to return even one per cent in the past one-year period.
Interestingly, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) earlier this month urged the public against choosing gold as an asset for savings or investment.
"Because interest rates are very low, people are investing in gold. But the poor should never invest in gold for whenever they have purchased gold, it either lands up in the temple or in the hands of the moneylender or, at the most, it may be given away during a daughter's
