And you ask any broker or investor who is losing money and they would say with a sigh that the market is 'correcting' itself. This correction is going for the last several months now. I won't be surprised if it goes below the 10K mark by the end of October when hopefully the Left will pull down the government.

The Indian stock markets are definitely rigged. The companies are doing well may be with the exception of the oil marketing companies. The economy is sound and consumers are buying things today as they never did before. There is inflation all right, but if you studied economics slight to moderate inflation is actually good for the economy and this is being made as an excuse to book some profit making.

Will we see a repeat of the downturn of 1996-97? Some signs are similar. That time around, the downturn in the was brought about by the increase of bank interest rates and the fall in Thailand and other East Asian countries was only partly to blame.

But I suspect the real estate market will see a downturn and that will hurt all those "get rich quick" kind of developers.

There is a Chinese saying that somewhat says that 'every crisis is an opportunity' . This is true in the case of the fall of the Indian stock markets> here's how we will benefit:
1. Although P/E ratios of many stocks are still dangerously high, I am sure they will come down and that will be a good time to invest.India is still a growth story.
2. Investments in ULIPS will be more attractive now than before.

Two cheers for value investing.