Umesh Mehta, Head of Research, Samco Securities said, ''This week’s fall is a valuation play with coronavirus as the scapegoat. Investors should not burn their hands by selling in this fall. Rather, they should slowly and steadily pick reasonably valued quality stocks in a SIP format as every dip becomes a good buying opportunity.''

Mehta opined, ''From extreme calmness to extreme pessimism, D-Street is also a victim of the virus outbreak in other countries. This pandemic led to indices across the globe to witness a sharp fall this week. However, when the entire world is blaming coronavirus for the fall, we feel that valuations have a big part to play in this bearishness. Back in 1918, during the outbreak of Spanish flu, Dow Jones didn’t correct instead it steadily moved up.''

''This was only because before the epidemic broke out, World War I had already led to a massive decline in the markets. Due to the valuations being at reasonable levels, despite the epidemic, markets improved. India is currently experiencing a similar yet opposite scenario. Indian bourses have been trading around higher valuations and hence a correction was needed to align the markets as per the mean reversion theory,'' he concluded.