Buzz in dealing rooms not same as during earlier highs

The proportion of retail investor participation at the new high is 40% of the figures seen in 2008

It is the last half hour of trade at Motilal Oswal’s Prabhadevi dealing room and the excitement is on the wane. Investors are beginning to wind down their positions as the market winds up for the week.

“People don’t want to take positions home anymore. They want to square-off and relax,” says Sandeep Gupta, senior vice-president, stretching his legs as another day nears its end.  It wasn’t always like this. Back in 2008, investors would be buying right into the closing bell.

“People would buy, it didn’t matter what it was, anything you bought went up; they would keep it for seven-eight days and then sell for a profit…It was a dream…there had never been such participation,” recalls Gupta. He calls it a dream more than once, as if the heady rush of those days seems too fantastic to be true.

Some of the people that sit around him seem too young to have seen the roaring bull market of 2008, though they are not too different from the old-timers. A foot taps impatiently, someone scratches his head and lips move soundlessly as they read off multiple screens before the closing bell; dealers who seem to be defined as often by their nervous tic as by a client roster or first name.

People speak in English, Hindi and Gujarati. And, the noise as they speak into their phones has picked up in the past 15-20 days, with all the excitement of a new high. But the people who are calling the dealers now are those who have already been in the market. And, they are trading for the very short-term, buying in and selling out before the closing bell lest they be caught on the wrong foot.

It was different in 2008, when the market was previously at these levels. “They would reinvest the money they made back into the market….Leverage was at its highest...Everybody from the paanwala to top businessmen, they were all investing,” recalls Gupta.

He estimates the proportion of retail investor participation at the new high is 40 per cent of the figures seen in 2008 and that more clients will only come in if the current momentum sustains for a while.

For now, the tide of noise comprising of ringing phones and shouted prices begins its retreat at 3 pm, as clients remain slow to trust a market which has turned once too often from its highs.

But brokers across the industry are trying their best to talk their clients into the market.

At Motilal an enormous bottle of water sits almost empty on the table. The dealing room is a thirsty place.