Regardless of market levels, invest in stocks and equity mutual funds in a staggered manner.
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Nitin Narkhede your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
'I have funded myself for tournaments until Nov last year, after which I was sent with the Indian team for tournaments as I met the selection criteria to make the team. I was included as part of TOPS scheme only after qualifying for the Paris 2024 Games till the Olympic Games, that's it.'
Ask rediffGURU Naveenn Kummar your insurance mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Debt mutual fund (MF) schemes, which witnessed relatively muted inflows in the past three years, saw a surge in investor interest in April amid election-induced volatility in the equity markets. Active debt funds garnered nearly Rs 66,000 crore net inflows in April, most at least since December 2020.
Do not, however, enter expecting quick returns.
The net inflow in equity mutual funds plunged 76 per cent to Rs 2,258 crore in November over the preceding month amid a sharp up move in the stock market that made investors wary of higher valuation. This also marks the 21st straight month of inflows into equity schemes. Overall, the mutual fund industry registered net inflows of Rs 13,263 crore in November, slightly lower from Rs 14,045 crore seen in the previous month, data released by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) showed on Friday.
rediffGURU T S Khurana answers readers' personal income tax queries
You can build your own retirement savings portfolio by investing in equity, hybrid and/or debt funds. Alternatively, you can also invest in retirement funds which provide asset allocation solutions for different investment needs and risk appetites, says Dwaipayan Bose
Actively managed midcap and smallcap schemes that have struggled to beat the benchmark indices in the past year have managed to outperform the indices during the downturn phase. Barring a few schemes, all active funds in the two categories have managed to arrest the decline vis-a-vis the key benchmarks.
Actor-politician Vijay held his first public meeting in Puducherry, criticising the central government for neglecting the union territory's demand for statehood and praising the local government's impartiality. He also targeted the DMK government in Tamil Nadu, suggesting they could learn from Puducherry.
'The informal sector can grow at a 100 per cent rate -- we have to plan big.'
MFs offer scale, simplicity, liquidity, and tax efficiency, and are an excellent vehicle for disciplined SIP investing. PMS is better suited for larger portfolios with equity allocation of Rs 3 crore to Rs 5 crore.
Fund managers are keeping cash in hand amid strong inflows and elevated valuations in the small and midcap space. Stress data shows that nearly half of the schemes in the smallcap space are holding cash of 5 per cent or more at the end of February 2024. By comparison, only 20 per cent of the midcap schemes had over 5 per cent cash in their portfolio during the same period.
Only investors with a higher risk appetite should enter these funds.
The Uttar Pradesh government, under Yogi Adityanath, is preparing a comprehensive plan to identify and act against infiltrators to strengthen internal security and ensure government schemes reach eligible beneficiaries.
rediffGURU Vipul Bhavsar answers readers' personal income tax queries.
Unperturbed by election uncertainty, investors poured record sums into equity mutual fund (MF) schemes in May, driving India closer to a $5 trillion market capitalisation. The Rs 34,697 crore net inflows into actively managed equity funds last month surpassed the previous high of Rs 28,463 crore recorded in March 2022. In April 2024, equity schemes had garnered nearly Rs 19,000 crore.
'In the last one year, we have added more than Rs 1.7 trillion, and we are on track.'
'We are getting to understand the mind of this generation.' 'Minor tweaks are being made to ease the process as we go along.'
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) will let Category-I and-II alternative investment funds (AIFs) run a dedicated "co-investment" (CIV) scheme for accredited investors, doing away with an earlier requirement of a separate portfolio-manager licence. The rules notified on Monday are aimed at reducing compliance burden for the AIF managers.
After a gap of more than three years, the central government has agreed to resume the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) works in West Bengal with immediate effect, but subject to mandatory adherence to stringent conditions. These include a prohibition on any work valued at more than 20 lakh, compulsory 100 per cent electronic know-your-customer (eKYC) verification of all workers, and mandatory pre-estimation field visits for all works before they are undertaken.
'The watershed moment was June 22, 2024, when the divisional in-charge of Gadchiroli, Giridhar Tumreti, who was their senior-most commander, along with his wife, came forward to surrender before the then deputy chief minister and home minister Devendra Fadnavis.'
Every 1 per cent per annum of investment costs is a matter of life or death, points out Avinash Luthria.
This comes a day after President Droupadi Murmu gave her assent to the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, which replaces the MGNREGA and has a provision for 125 days of wage employment for rural workers.
Investors should use a mix of active and passive funds.
Member of Parliament can now allocate funds from their local area development scheme kitty for rural employment guarantee programmes. The move that comes just ahead of Budget is aimed at providing the much-needed fiscal cushion to operate the UPA's most ambitious social security programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA).
Ask rediffGURU Naveenn Kummar your insurance mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Domestic passive mutual fund (MF) schemes will have to sell around Rs 1,500 crore worth of ITC Hotels shares once the demerged entity lists on the exchanges, according to estimates. Passive MF schemes - especially those tracking the Nifty 50 and Sensex - will have to offload their holdings in ITC Hotels as the stock will be excluded from the indices.
'First-time investors, busy professionals, NRIs and those with modest sums looking for curated strategies may find FoFs especially appealing.'
A bill to repeal the MGNREGA and introduce a new rural employment law, the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin), has been circulated among Lok Sabha members.
Is the parabolic rise in silver running out of steam or just getting started? Ramalingam Kalirajan offers his take on if you should invest in silver now?
Active largecap funds, which have the toughest job in terms of outperforming the benchmark, did better in 2023 as their bets in the mid and smallcap stocks paid off.
'A 20 per cent equity allocation to ESG funds is a good start.' 'As more evidence on ESG performance builds, investors may increase allocations.'
Ask rediffGURU and PF, MF and insurance expert Purshotam Lal your mutual fund, insurance and personal finance-related questions.
The Assam government has introduced a bill to ban polygamy, proposing imprisonment for offenders while excluding Scheduled Tribes and Sixth Schedule areas from its purview.
Net inflows into two of the 'lower risk' equity funds - largecaps and flexicaps - outpaced the flows into smallcap funds during January 2024 for the first time in 17 months. This is an indication that investors may now be shifting to the relatively safer largecap stocks after a sharp run up in the mid and smallcap spaces. Net inflows into large and flexicap funds were at Rs 3,730 crore last month against Rs 3,260 crore by smallcap schemes.
The reduction in the number of loan accounts and the outstanding amount during the last financial year is a cause of concern and stress for microfinance institutions (MFI), Secretary, Department of Financial Services, M Nagaraju said on Thursday, highlighting "inefficiency" in MFIs that leads to higher rates of interest.
'Earnings growth will be the main driver of India's market in 2026, with profits expected to rise 9% to 10% in H2 FY26 and accelerate to 12% to 15% in FY27.'
'No human bias is involved as happens in active funds.'