Investment Mirage

The average Indian investor is lost. After a doleful stock market performance in Year 2025, households are forced to revisit their avenues for safety and growth

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The stock market can deliver rich long-term rewards, yet in the short and medium terms, it often behaves in ways that make risk-averse savers nervous

There are two kinds of financial fear. There is the fear of losing money you need and feel you can earn from investments, and there is the fear of watching your money sit still while everything and everyone else moves ahead. In 2025, the Indian investor discovered a numbing mix.

The stock market, for long a temple of promise for middle-class dreams, handed out a humbling performance. While the Sensex and Nifty posted modest gains, the scrip-by-scrip reality was anything but celebratory. A majority of stocks delivered returns lower than even the interest available on Fixed Deposits from banks, including State Bank of India, for long the sanctum of cautious Indian savers.

Eight out of 10 actively-traded BSE stocks failed to beat FD yields, a grim reminder that the much-touted 'wealth creation' machine can also feel like a slow treadmill, not a rocket ship that takes off to tame the universe. Bull market narratives proclaimed a decade or half of gains for the Nifty, but for households putting principal and peace of mind first, the brouhaha felt distant. Dalal Street underperformed all global peers, disappointed foreign investors and left retail participants wondering if the meme-fuelled chase for high returns had morphed into a trap of unmet expectations.