Volume : 6, Issue : 3, March - 2017

INFLUENCE OF DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES ON INVESTMENT DECISIONS OF RETAIL INVESTORS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO CUDDALORE TOWN

S. Uma Priyadharshini, Dr. S. A. Lourthuraj

Abstract :

<p>&nbsp;<span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">Since the economic liberalization, there is an increase in the number of investment avenues available for the retail investors, depending upon his her preferred reasons; the investment avenues are selected and used. This research ings forth certain major characteristic of retail investors, living in cuddalore town.</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">&nbsp; </span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">The study was conducted with an objective of finding out the impact of demographic variables such as age, income, gender, education, family size, occupation etc, on investment decisions of investors. The research was a descriptive research with a sample size of 150 samples and the data was collected from the respondents with the help of a structured questionnaire. The sampling technique used for study was convenience sampling. It was identified that the demographic variables have an impact on the investment decisions and the major reasons behind their investment were Tax benefits, Future use, Liquidity, Get return and Security &amp; Safety, from which the retail investors are allowed to rank their own preferences given for each investment avenues, they used for</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">&nbsp; </span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">investing their money from the following</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">&nbsp; </span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">avenues such as Bank/Post-office /deposits, Insurances, private/Government Bonds, Mutual Funds, Gold&amp; Silver, and Real Estate Investments.</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">&nbsp; </span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">The finding shows that the investors invest in Share Market and Real Estate investments, for getting higher return on their investments. Investors with low or medium income invest their</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">money in bank/ post office deposits and also they invest in insurances for safety and security purposes. Therefore, the answers for the objectives of the study were identified through the survey and also behaviour of the retail investors of cuddalore town was analyzed.</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>