Should you invest in falling markets?

New Delhi: What should retail investors do in a falling market? Experts say retail investors can enter now but advises to select stocks, which are fundamentally strong.

According to Deven Choksey of KR Choksey Securities, retail investors should invest in the falling market if the fundamentals are strong and keep a one-year plus horizon. Buy and then hold there after. At the moment select your stocks and buy.

Sumit Rohra, Antique Stock Broking, advices retail investors to stay invested, stick to quality and buy stocks, which you would understand.

Given a three-month outlook my top pick would be Reliance. It is the pillar of the market and will take the market up during recovery along with ONGC and Infosys. Retail investors should not buy any stocks related to commodities and especially metals. They should not exit in panic except for the metals sector.

Sanjay Dutt of Quantum Securities believes that investors must have clarity on what they are holding in their portfolios.

He says, "One important thing investors need to do is go back to their portfolio and be clear on what they are holding. It is going to be little painful now since only good stocks will go up."

"Relatively defensive sectors will make money now. The ones, which are little cheap and have lesser valuations will benefit. That is where one needs to look now, a safe haven strategy."

"But try and get little more defensive on the portfolio. I think momentum is breaking at this point and one needs to be very careful of what one is holding," he added.

He adds that for very short-term trading calls, one could buy into these panic falls and sell with marginal profits.

"One can make use of such opportunities right now, but for portfolio rebalancing calls I would like to wait for a while and ride out this trading session today and then take a call on what to do," says Dutt.

Janish Shah, Networth Stock Broking, said that retail investors should stay with good quality stocks and not enter the markets right now. "Wait rather than trade now. One should wait for another couple of weeks for better opportunities and then enter.

Investment advisor, PN Vijay says one should adopt a bottoms-up approach now.

He says, "People are getting very anxious about all these overseas commentators talking about stretched valuations. My advice to them would be to look at the basics and take a bottoms-up approach. Look at good corporate results, buy at declines and make good money. I do not think the investors are panicking or should be panicking actually. "

Ambareesh Baliga, Karvy Stock Broking says that the current volatility has rattled investors.

He said, "Three-month outlook is a bit difficult to give right now but then this volatility has actually rattled investors. I don’t see investors coming back to the markets very soon and start buying."