how attractive is the market?

Europe crisis, US recession and fear of a global meltdown have been the topics of discussion these days. Indian growth rate has been lowered to less than 7% going forward. Market has taken a beating from 20k to 16k as noted below.

Month	Open	High	Low	Close
Sep-10	18027.12	20267.98	18027.12	20069.12
Oct-10	20094.1	20854.55	19768.96	20032.34
Nov-10	20272.49	21108.64	18954.82	19521.25
Dec-10	19529.99	20552.03	19074.57	20509.09
Jan-11	20621.61	20664.8	18038.48	18327.76
Feb-11	18425.18	18690.97	17295.62	17823.4
Mar-11	17982.28	19575.16	17792.17	19445.22
Apr-11	19463.11	19811.14	18976.19	19135.96
May-11	19224.05	19253.87	17786.13	18503.28
Jun-11	18527.12	18873.39	17314.38	18845.87
Jul-11	18974.96	19131.7	18131.86	18197.2
Aug-11	18352.23	18440.07	15765.53	16676.75
Sep-11	16963.67	17211.8	15801.01	16453.76
Oct-11	16255.97	17908.13	15745.43	17705.01
Nov-11	17540.55	17702.26	15478.69	16123.46
9 Dec11	16555.93	17003.71	16142.32	16213.46

The fall has created panic in the market only to fear more fall. But within these parameters, is the market attractive today at this absolute figure?

Does not appear so if we have a look at the following table showing sensex yields over the years.

Year	Open	High	Low	Close	Price/Earnings	Price/Bookvalue	Dividend Yield
1991	1027.38	1955.29	947.14	1908.85	22.3	3.58	1.24
1992	1957.33	4546.58	1945.48	2615.37	36.19	6.35	0.8
1993	2617.78	3459.07	1980.06	3346.06	31.78	4.81	0.98
1994	3436.87	4643.31	3405.88	3926.9	45.45	6.07	0.68
1995	3910.16	3943.66	2891.45	3110.49	23.63	3.81	1.13
1996	3114.08	4131.22	2713.12	3085.2	16.07	3.02	1.5
1997	3096.65	4605.41	3096.65	3658.98	14.45	2.8	1.53
1998	3658.34	4322	2741.22	3055.41	13	2.25	1.8
1999	3064.95	5150.99	3042.25	5005.82	17.35	3.07	1.38
2000	5209.54	6150.69	3491.55	3972.12	24.48	3.81	1.14
2001	3990.65	4462.11	2594.87	3262.33	17.6	2.51	1.83
2002	3262.01	3758.27	2828.48	3377.28	15.22	2.3	2.14
2003	3383.85	5920.76	2904.44	5838.96	15.02	2.49	2.14
2004	5872.48	6617.15	4227.5	6602.69	17.26	3.28	2.01
2005	6626.49	9442.98	6069.33	9397.93	16.21	3.94	1.58
2006	9422.49	14035.3	8799.01	13786.91	20.18	4.75	1.35
2007	13827.77	20498.11	12316.1	20286.99	22.25	5.32	1.1
2008	20325.27	21206.77	7697.39	9647.31	18.22	4.2	1.29
2009	9720.55	17530.94	8047.17	17464.81	18.08	3.42	1.43
2010	17473.45	21108.64	15651.99	20509.09	21.71	3.67	1.12
9Dec2011	20621.61	20664.8	15478.69	16213.46	19.38	3.45	1.3

With 19x p/e, over 3% p/b and less than 2% dividend yield it is far from the investors' market. Sure, there are opportunities at individual stock levels. But overall it could be the platform for traders, speculators and the like.

Take your pick!