Sep 02, 2026 12:56 pm IST

Opinion | The Indian Investor Has A New Problem: An SIP That Does Nothing

You keep doing everything right. So why aren't your stocks paying off, even as your investments rise?

Deepanshu Mohan, Ankur Singh Deepanshu Mohan Columnist Ankur Singh Columnist

Deepanshu Mohan Columnist

Ankur Singh Columnist

One of the most disconcerting aspects of the stock market today for millions of Indian investors is the lack of a crash. The Nifty has been trading at high levels for the last three years, while earnings have slowly closed the gap. It can be especially weird for an investor who started investing during the post-pandemic boom. The money keeps going out of the bank account, but the wealth doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

That experience is worth more than the tried-and-true recommendation to just stick it out. There has been a larger shift in India's financial economy. The country has accumulated a vast stockpile of domestic capital at a time when valuations, corporate profits, and global capital flows are under pressure.

SIP assets in March this year were ₹15.11 lakh crore, about one-fifth of the mutual fund industry's assets.

The Price Of The Past

The equity risk premium is a way to grasp the underlying problem. Some valuations reached levels in 2023 where the premium investors demanded for taking on equity risk became unusually low. At current prices, investors were essentially willing to pay less for riskier stocks than for relatively safer government bonds. The correction that followed has, therefore, been unusual. Instead of a dramatic drop in prices, earnings have had to rise to justify valuations, which economists refer to as a "time correction."

A market can correct itself by lowering prices. It can also correct by letting........

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