Equity mutual funds witnessed an outflow of Rs 9,253 crore in January, making it the seventh consecutive monthly withdrawal, primarily due to profit booking and portfolio rebalancing amid markets touching new highs. The pace of outflows from equities has however slowed for the third month and Gautam Kalia, head - Investment Solutions, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas said that it will likely turn positive soon as investors get used to the new normal. In addition, investors pulled out Rs 33,409 crore from debt mutual funds last month after investing Rs 13,863 crore in December, data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India showed on Tuesday.
'It could tempt investors to pick stocks that are not fundamentally sound.'
Mutual funds (MFs) are lining up distinguished new fund offerings (NFOs) for the next financial year to win over investors after a lukewarm response to product launches in the 2022-23 financial year (FY23). NFOs drew a lukewarm response in FY23 as launches were mostly in the passive debt space, which has a comparatively lower popularity among retail investors. The limited launches in equity space also failed to rake in huge sums due to subdued investor sentiments in a volatile market.
The Rs 38-trillion mutual fund (MF) industry is going through a new fund offer (NFO) rush. Since July 1, the industry has launched close to 70 NFOs. This follows the completion of a near three-month embargo period when the industry had vowed to not launch any new offerings till the time it implemented norms around pooling of investor accounts. As a result, between April and June 2022, the industry was able to launch just three NFOs.
Brokerages have lowered the price targets of asset management companies (AMCs) since they failed to beat revenue growth expectations in the January-March quarter (fourth quarter, or Q4) of 2022-23 (FY23). The regulator's plans to lower the fee charged by AMCs also added to concerns. While HDFC AMC and Nippon Life India AMC reported modest growth in revenue from operations in Q4FY23, UTI AMC and Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC delivered yet another weak quarter.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is considering a proposal to allow mutual funds (MFs) to charge a fee based on their performance, said Ananta Barua, whole-time member of the markets regulator. He said the proposal is being reviewed by a working group formed to look into cost structures. "One working group has been set up which is going to review... One of the suggestions is that if any scheme or fund is performing well above the benchmark, it (fee) can be linked to its performance.
Experts say the trend is worrying as it could take a toll on the pace of equity flows and also hinder the penetration drive of the Rs 24-trillion MF industry.
Various online platforms let you invest in direct mutual funds.
While the proposed new tax regime is optional for taxpayers, the finance minister has said the government eventually wants to do away with all exemptions with a lower tax-rate simplified structure.
Indices across Indian equity markets have edged towards new record highs before undergoing a small correction in the past few sessions. The National Stock Exchange Nifty has gained 20 per cent in the past year; mid-caps (up 33 per cent), small-caps (up 31 per cent), and micro-caps (up 44 per cent) have done better. Several factors have precipitated this rally.
'Starting an SIP now and continuing with it is likely to translate into high returns over the long term.'
Omkeshwar Singh, head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries:
'Investors should restrict themselves to a few category schemes with high quality portfolios apart from overnight and liquid funds.'
Ulhas Joshi, Head -- Sales, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
Omkeshwar Singh, Head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
Actively managed mutual fund (MF) schemes had been at the receiving end over the past few years for their inability to beat their benchmarks. However, the slump in shares of Adani Group companies - two of which are part of the benchmark National Stock Exchange Nifty50 index - have helped them improve their performance vis--vis exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or index funds.
Two equity funds at the opposite ends of the risk matrix - small-cap and arbitrage - bucked the 'low inflow' trend in May this calendar year 2023 (CY23) to receive the highest net inflows in recent years. The Rs 3,280-crore net inflows into small-cap schemes in May was the highest for the category since the mutual fund (MF) industry started releasing fund-wise inflow data in April 2019. Arbitrage schemes raked in a net Rs 6,640 crore - the highest since July 2021.
After eight months of consecutive outflows, equity mutual funds witnessed a net inflow of Rs 9,115 crore in March amid correction in the stock market. Barring multi-cap and value fund categories, all the equity schemes saw inflow last month, data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) showed on Thursday. However, investors pulled out Rs 52,528 crore from debt mutual funds last month, after investing Rs 1,735 crore in February, owing to advance tax payments and other year ending commitments. Overall, the mutual fund industry witnessed a net outflow of Rs 29,745 crore across all segments during the period under review, compared with a net inflow of Rs 4,090 crore in February.
Fund managers may end up losing out on crucial information during market hours, leading to information asymmetry vis-a-vis other institutional investors such as alternative investment funds, insurance players, or foreign portfolio investors.
Nikunj Saraf, Vice President Choice Wealth, answers your queries.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Monday relaxed the norms for valuing perpetual bonds. The norms, which had sought to value banks' deemed residual maturity of Basel III additional tier 1 (AT1) bonds as 100-year debt from April 1, were strongly opposed by the finance ministry. In a statement released on Monday, the regulator said the maturity would be 10 years until March 31, 2022, and would be increased to 20 and 30 years over the subsequent six-month period.
rediffGURU Nikunj Saraf suggests considering small-cap, mid-cap, and multi-cap mutual funds.
Operational and compliance challenges foreseen for fund houses in deducting tax at source, resulting in possible TDS mismatches and disputes with investors.
Regarding the applicability of stamp duty on redemption of mutual fund (MF) units, Sebi said, "Redemption is not liable to duty as it is neither a transfer nor an issue nor a sale." However, switching in mutual fund would attract stamp duty. "The issue of fresh units in the switched scheme would attract stamp duty even though there is no physical consideration paid or transfer of ownership," Sebi said.
Omkeshwar Singh, Head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
Omkeshwar Singh, head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
'Even where we are now today, the growth rates are very good, but we need to get to 8-9 per cent growth in the years to come.'
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is discussing with mutual funds (MFs) a proposal on introducing new total expense ratio (TER) slabs linked to the total equity and debt assets by replacing the current ones that are linked to assets of an individual scheme. Senior MF executives confirmed that Sebi had held discussions on this matter with AMCs. Such a change is expected to lead to a lower TER cap for bigger asset management companies (AMCs).
In the face of tax blow, brokerages remain sanguine about the prospects of asset management companies (AMCs). A sharp correction in the shares of AMCs over the past three months factors in most of the negatives and turned valuations attractive, observe analysts. In its latest report, Kotak Institutional Equities (KIE) has upgraded HDFC AMC to 'add' (from 'reduce') and reprised 'add' and 'buy' ratings on the rest of the listed AMCs - Nippon, UTI, and Aditya Birla Sun Life.
Nikunj Saraf, Vice President Choice Wealth, answers your mutual fund queries.
This is a key reason for the finance ministry's objection to fixing the tenure at 100 years, as it is pushing PSBs to be self-dependent and raise funds from the market, reports Hamsini Karthik.
Omkeshwar Singh, head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
Instead of only focusing on the tenure for which the best interest rate is available, investors should also focus on their own investment horizon.
'The reason being we cannot let premiums go beyond a certain point.'
The amount of money Indians invested in foreign securities, property, and deposits in 2022 was likely the highest on record. At $2.1 billion, it was the largest spend for any 12-month period according to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) data going back over a decade. The amount spent for each individual segment was also the highest.
Nikunj Saraf, Vice President Choice Wealth, answers your queries.
Omkeshwar Singh, Head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, will answer all your budget-related queries on investing in mutual funds between 1 pm and 2 pm, February 4.
Omkeshwar Singh, Head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) who invest from Mauritius into Indian companies that dole out bonus debentures will get impacted by the tax avoidance provisions on bonus stripping. The FY23 Budget has extended these provisions - applicable only to MFs, so far - to shares and units of REITs, InvITs and AIFs. The move will especially affect large institutional investors who sell original units within nine months after the record date because the loss arising from sale of original units would have to be ignored for the purposes of computing taxable income and cannot be set off against any other capital gain.
Omkeshwar Singh, head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
