Bull and Bear Phases:An Empirical Perusal of Indian Stock Market

In general, any one known to stock market is acquainted with the phenomenon of bull and bear phases, but whether the traders or investors put air to these phases while making a decision to buy, sell, or stay invested. The present paper attempts to identify and analyse the two most popular market phases, i.e. bull and bear, for better investment decisions with the use of Bry and Boschan Algorithm and time series data. Further, it seeks to analyse the distributional characteristics of the variances in stock returns and search evidence of asymmetries, if any, in volatility under different market conditions which may help to shed light on the bull and bear phases of Indian equity market. The study arrange for evidence that in bull markets, stock prices run far ahead of earnings and for fairly long periods of time. The paper indicates 12 bull and bear phases in the Sensex and Nifty during the sample period of 19 years with the associated factors responsible for the shift of bull and bear market phases. The results provide considerable support for the view that markets choose to ignore adverse possibilities and react with zest to favourable possibilities and market declines can partly be explained by increases in risk.