The fast growing Indian economy has led to higher income level and availability of new investment avenues. Government savings departments, banks, financial institutions and mutual fund houses are vying for a share in the savings of investors. Investors now have many options for making investments like debt instruments, stocks, mutual funds, gold, etc. With the role of women becoming increasingly important in the family as well as society, it becomes important to examine the investment behavior of women investors. The present study analyzes the level of knowledge regarding various investment avenues, select investment practices, and factors influencing investment decision making among male and female employees of private sector banks in a city of India. The study reveals that both male and female respondents were using magazines, Internet and TV channels as the three most important sources of awareness for collecting information about various investment alternatives. Also, male and female respondents were investing a larger portion of their savings into safe and risk-free investment avenues, like employee provident fund, public provident fund and life insurance policy.

Investment decision-making process is concerned with how an investor should proceed in making a decision about what marketable securities to invest in, how extensive the investment should be and when the investment should be made. Investment is sacrifice of current rupees for future rupees. Investment has got two attributes—time and risk. The sacrifice takes place in the present and is certain. The reward to be received in future is generally uncertain. In some cases, element of time dominates (e.g., government bonds). Either time or risk or both are important (e.g., shares of common stock) (Sharpe et al., 1996).

Indian economy has offered a plethora of opportunities to men and women alike in the last few years due to higher GDP growth rate. This has led to higher income levels and availability of new investment avenues. Government savings departments, banks, financial institutions and mutual fund houses are vying for a share in the savings of investors. Investors now have many options for making investments like debt instruments, stocks, mutual funds, gold, etc. With the role of women becoming increasingly important in the family and society, it becomes important to examine the investment behavior of women investors.

Hinz et al. (1997), Byrnes et al. (1999), and Bernasek and Shwiff (2001) highlighted that women are more risk-averse than men, while Sunden and Surette (1998) found that gender and marital status are significantly related to asset allocation. Hibbert et al. (2008) revealed that gender risk aversion is related to age, income, wealth, marital status, race/ethnicity and the number of children under 18 in the household.

It becomes imperative for small savings department of central and state government, banks, mutual fund houses, etc. to enquire about the awareness level regarding the different schemes available among investors. The present study was conducted to analyze the level of knowledge regarding various investment avenues, select investment practices, and factors influencing investment decision making among male and female employees of private sector banks in a city of India.

Behavioral Finance Journal, Asset Pricing, Contingent States, Capital Asset Pricing Model, Prospect Theory, Financial Literature, Bullish Market, Asymmetric Evaluation, Capital Asset Pricing Model, French Market, Political Crises, Asian Financial Crisis.