Analysts are increasingly optimistic about India's capital markets, with HDFC AMC, CAMS, and KFin Technologies identified as top investment picks. This optimism stems from a structural shift in household savings towards financial instruments and an expected multi-year earnings expansion for market infrastructure providers and asset management companies.
According to sources, the two fund managers allegedly made illicit gains worth Rs 150 crore to Rs 200 crore through front-running.
Measured by returns in 2013, the top 10 funds had only three from large houses; nimble strategy could be a factor.
Sectoral funds, focused exclusively on public sector banks (PSBs), have delivered the strongest returns among domestic mutual fund (MF) categories over the past six months. However, active banking funds have significantly lagged because of their heavy tilt towards private lenders.
Business cycle funds aim to optimise returns by aligning their portfolios with different phases of the economic cycle. First-time investors, those who prefer stable sector allocations, and those averse to volatility should steer clear of them.
Ask rediffGURU Reetika Sharma your insurance, mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Nitin Narkhede your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
'Those trying to use these funds for quick gains should avoid them due to risk of being late to the party.'
ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Infosys, SBI and L&T among fund managers' preferred bets.
Markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is examining allegations of front-running and other irregularities against a host of domestic fund managers across the asset management industry, said people in the know. Developments at Axis Mutual Fund have prompted the regulator to speed up probe to ensure that there is no drop in confidence in the Rs 39-trillion mutual fund (MF) industry. "We have received complaints against a few fund managers and are looking into possible violations, including those related to code of conduct," said a regulatory source, refusing to divulge names of fund houses as things are at a preliminary stage.
Several companies across sectors like finance, healthcare, wellness, retail technology, and asset management are bracing up to hit the D-street. With an unprecedented 1.7 lakh crore raised in 2025, the momentum is likely to sustain in 2026.
'A dynamic bond fund acts like a gilt fund in a rate cut scenario and like a conservative short-term bond fund when rates rise.'
'They are positioned as defensive products and can potentially give marginally higher returns than liquid funds.'
With the RBI infusing Rs 7.5 lakh crore in liquidity -- and possibly more in the future -- the short- to medium-term corporate bond market is expected to benefit.
'When interest rates rise, the NAVs of these funds will fall.' However, they won't fall as much as longer-duration funds.
Equity-focused schemes may perform better in a bull market, while debt-oriented ones may offer greater stability during volatile periods.
Ask rediffGURU Naveenn Kummar your insurance mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
As many as 140 million customers of HDFC Bank and Axis Bank are expected to face interruption in banking services in the weekend due to the former's system upgrade and the transition of Citi India business to the latter. Both the banks have notified their customers about the interruption in services. HDFC Bank - the country's largest private sector lender with 93.2 million customers - had announced that it will undertake a system upgrade on July 13, wherein it will migrate its core banking system (CBS) to a new engineered platform to enhance customer experience.
Ask rediffGURU Naveenn Kummar your insurance mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Front-running is a fraudulent practice where traders exploit advance knowledge of large client orders for personal profit.
'A staggered investment approach (using SIP or STP) can help investors benefit from this opportunity while reducing timing risk.'
rediffGURU Ramalingam Kalirajan answers your personal finance queries.
Stock market is gearing up for an eventful week ahead where key triggers such as quarterly earnings from corporates, the US Fed interest rate decision and the upcoming Union Budget for 2026-27 would grab the limelight, analysts said.
'Sebi's measures are necessary to align the derivatives market with its underlying cash market, as the current disconnect is unsustainable.'
Mutual funds (MFs) - flush with cash amid record inflows in July - invested heavily in the Rs 25,000-crore qualified institutional placement (QIP) of India's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI). Fund managers acquired SBI shares worth Rs 10,200 crore last month, making the lender their biggest buy in July.
'An equity-based index fund should be held for more than five years to average out market volatility and achieve financial goals.'
Cases of front-running mostly happen when large asset managers and intermediaries are involved in bulk trades as their transaction size is generally big enough to impact the stock price.
'The problem is that the bubble may not only be in valuations, but also in investors' minds.'
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Nitin Narkhede your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
The recent correction suggests that while precious metals hedge geopolitical tension and inflation, they are not immune to sharp short-term corrections and profit-booking.
Quant funds have a very short track record, and have underperformed so far, reveals Sarbajeet K Sen.
Since April there have been no new NFOs because of the delay in the implementation of the new norms around pooling of funds.
New investor additions by mutual funds (MFs) have slowed dramatically in recent months, indicating that market correction and a rise in volatility are somewhat dimming the appeal of equity schemes. MFs have onboarded 300,000 new investors in April 2025, the lowest in 22 months.
'For the same level of return, you can reduce portfolio volatility significantly with a 10% to 15% exposure to international funds.'
At a time when exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were unloading Jio Financial Services from their portfolios, some active fund managers were placing large bets on the demerged financial services arm of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), a report by Nuvama Alternative & Quantitative Research shows. Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund and Quant Mutual Fund were the top MF buyers of the stock in August. They bought around 60 million shares each, together investing around Rs 2,800 crore.
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.
Nikunj Saraf, Vice President Choice Wealth, answers your queries.
There was no smooth surge in middle class prosperity for foreign businesses to tap into because of the Indian economy was mismanaged, argues Debashis Basu.
rediffGURU Ramalingam Kalirajan answers your personal finance queries.
