Radhika Gupta's advice: Rely on dal chawal investments like FDs, don't chase glamour post-COVID

Chasing glamour can be dangerous and never more so for vulnerable middle class households playing the stock markets. Ask Radhika Gupta, CEO of Edelweiss Asset Management, on what middle class investors should be focusing on and her advice is simple: Stop chasing glamour. Pick safe, steady, dal chawal instruments. Gupta made the observations during a conversation with Prabhu Chawla, Editorial Director, The New Indian Express, and author and senior journalist Kaveree Bamzai on TNIE’s Expressions, a series of live web casts with people who matter.“I think the middle class needs to stop chasing glamour. I think they need to chase simple dal chawal-type investments. 80 per cent of your portfolio needs to be these dal chawal investments,” Gupta said. According to the asset manager, the average middle class investor needs two things: One simple mutual fund product that invests in the top 200 companies in India, which they should hold for seven to ten years.And the rest of their portfolio, may be in safe instruments like fixed deposits and the Bharat Bond ETF.