Ask rediffGURU and PF and MF expert Janak Patel your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
The Finance Act, 2020, has inserted a sub-section, mandating a seller to deduct tax equal to 0.1 per cent of sale proceeds if the value of goods sold exceeds Rs 50 lakh in a financial year.
Your choice between the Old and New Tax Regimes should reflect your financial strategy and investment goals, says Ramalingam Kalirajan
rediffGURU Ramalingam Kalirajan answers your personal finance queries.
Stocks of smallcap and midcap companies, which had caught the fancy of retail investors, also feature in the portfolio of leading politicians in addition to bluechip stocks.
Omkeshwar Singh, head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
'If the portfolio growth rate is higher, take this loan. If it is lower, liquidate your investments.'
The income tax department has notified all seven income tax return forms for assessment year 2025-26. While ITR forms 1 and 4, which are filed by small and medium taxpayers, were notified on April 29; ITR-7, filed by trusts and charitable institutions, was notified on May 11.
Saurav Ghosh's step-by-step guide will help you understand what bonds are, how they help investors make money, how much money they make and which bonds to invest in.
'Investors' decisions should reflect their financial goals, risk tolerance, and the amount of gold already present in their portfolio.'
There are a number of steps taken that will leave more money in the hands of the taxpayers.
These include the reduction in tax rates under the new tax regime, increase in standard deduction, allowing tax collected at source to be adjusted against tax deducted at source from salaries, notes Harsh Roongta.
rediffGURU Vipul Bhavsar answers readers' personal income tax queries.
National Stock Exchange (NSE) chief Ashishkumar Chauhan on Friday cautioned retail investors against trading in derivatives and suggested them to invest in equities through mutual fund route. He emphasized that trading in Futures & Options (F&O) derivatives should be limited to informed investors who can manage risk and comprehend the market. Recently, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and chief economic advisor V Anantha Nageswaran flagged the growing risk of F&O trading for retail investors.
Salil Dhawan explains how as you progress in your career you can also grow your money at a phenomenal pace if you start investing early.
Balanced advantage funds (BAFs) were popular in the later part of 2021 and continued to see good inflows until some months back as investors looked for safer options amid over-valuation concerns. As such concerns ease, investors are turning to riskier funds and shifting from BAFs. Redemptions from the hybrid fund category have exceeded in six of the last seven months, with investors pulling out a net of Rs 3,140 crore during the seven-month period.
India remains one of the most over-owned market in Asia.
'What we need to watch is how Saudi Arabia's financial assistance will be used by Pakistan. If the funds go to build their military hardware and operations, it should worry us.'
With a deployment of Rs 2,720 crore in July, MFs' total investment in HDFC Bank in calendar year 2024 (till now) surged to Rs 48,820 crore.
The new asset class (NAC) proposed by the market regulator could see diverse product offerings with high-risk strategies across equity and debt if the mutual fund (MF) industry's recommendations are incorporated into the final regulations. While the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has suggested relaxations in investment norms for NAC compared to traditional MFs, some fund houses are advocating for further relaxations in concentration norms, greater flexibility in leverage, and the ability to invest in securities currently outside the MF domain, such as unlisted debt papers and debentures, sources reveal.
Novice investors must understand that volatility is an inherent part of equity markets and learn to navigate through such phases.
Mutual fund (MF) houses have started realigning their overseas product offerings after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) advised them to stop subscriptions. PPFAS Asset Management has decided to suspend transactions in Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund with effect from February 2, 2022. Though new lump-sum and systematic investment plans (SIPs) will not be accepted, existing SIPs and systematic transfer plans (STPs) will continue.
'Money that came into mutual funds near the previous peaks -- the second half of 2017 and 2018 -- has in most cases experienced unflattering returns.' 'A large proportion of redemptions could be such inflows exiting when the market recovered sharply from July 2020 onwards.'
The Indian mutual funds, hit hard by redemption pressure, have something to cheer with the government allowing navratnas and mini-ratnas to invest 30 per cent of their surplus funds in equity market through public sector mutual funds.
A growth scheme not only leads to lower tax payments than the dividend option. but also allows any income that is not withdrawn to compound, explains Harsh Roongta.
'In the short term you keep your return expectations very, very low; in the medium term be prepared to invest and in the long term growth will come and your returns from stocks will be high.'
New investors should gradually build a 5 to 10 per cent allocation to gold.
The Indian markets have delivered high long-term returns, second only to the US.
'Investors should restrict themselves to a few category schemes with high quality portfolios apart from overnight and liquid funds.'
Riding the wave of the equity market, the mutual fund (MF) industry experienced double-digit growth in Samvat 2079, concluding the Hindu calendar year close to the Rs 50 trillion assets under management milestone. After a subdued 6 per cent growth in Samvat 2078, the industry's assets surged over 18 per cent last year to Rs 46.7 trillion. Industry players anticipate that Samvat 2080 will also be a fruitful year for the asset management industry, given the strong inflows from retail investors, particularly through the systematic investment plan route.
After withdrawing record funds in 2021-22, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) continued their sell-off in the last fiscal too and pulled out Rs 37,631 crore from Indian equities amid aggressive rate hikes by central banks globally. The outflow trend is likely to reverse in the current financial year since India has the best growth potential in the financial year 2023-24 (FY24), VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said. Market analysts believe that FPI flows in the current financial year would be decided by a host of factors, such as the US Federal Reserve's policy stance, oil prices movement and development in the geopolitical situation.
