New investors should avoid short-term, tactical entries and instead go for staggered buying via ETFs to manage volatility.
Largecap companies are generally less vulnerable to economic slowdowns than their mid- and smallcap counterparts.
'Increasingly, they treat gold as a financial asset in their portfolio rather than just as jewellery.'
'Defence, capital goods, engineering, capital market-related stocks, autos, and cement sectors are my bullish bets for Samvat 2082.'
The reduction in goods & services tax (GST) on individual life and health insurance premiums has been called a "landmark step" for making insurance affordable and inclusive. In a panel discussion at the Business Standard BFSI Insight Summit 2025, Anup Bagchi, managing director (MD) & chief executive officer (CEO) of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance; Mahesh Balasubramanian, MD & CEO of Kotak Life Insurance; Tarun Chugh, MD & CEO of Bajaj Life Insurance; and Ratnakar Patnaik, MD of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), listed what else the industry needs to reach more people.
Canadian firm Manulife and Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), an Indian automaker with interests in financial services, have signed an agreement to form a 50:50 life insurance joint venture (JV) with a total capital commitment of up to Rs 3,600 crore each totalling Rs 7,200 crore.
As the rally in precious metals takes centre stage in 2025, most analysts recommend a larger allocation to gold over silver despite the latter's outperformance this year. In the current calendar year (CY25), spot gold prices in dollar terms rallied
A strong influx of 11 equity new fund offers (NFOs) in June, particularly within the thematic space, helped mutual funds collect Rs 14,370 crore - the highest ever via such introductory offers. This surpassed the previous high recorded in July 2021, where four NFOs accumulated Rs 13,709 crore, with ICICI Prudential MF's flexicap NFO alone mobilising Rs 9,808 crore.
India's corporate bond market, driven by public sector undertaking (PSU) banks and financial institutions last year, is losing momentum since the second quarter of FY26.
'A staggered investment approach (using SIP or STP) can help investors benefit from this opportunity while reducing timing risk.'
In a bid to tap the growing potential of mutual fund business in the country, ICICI Bank has decided to raise its stake in Prudential ICICI Asset Management Company to 51 per cent, by buying out six per cent stake from Prudential Plc.
'As we navigate uncertain waters, a conservative approach to largecap investing could provide a strategic advantage.'
rediffGURU Ramalingam Kalirajan answers your personal finance queries.
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.
Despite the uncertainties created by rising bond yields and oil prices, fund managers have been proactively deploying fresh flows into the equity market. The cash available with equity fund managers, which has remained lower at around 5 per cent in the past few months, hit a 16-month low of 4.8 per cent in September, shows a Motilal Oswal Financial Services report. Cash holdings in equity schemes had topped 6 per cent in February amid subdued equity market sentiment.
The ideal time to invest in sector funds, is during a downturn so that investors can capitalise on a turnaround in 1.5 to 2 years.
Mutual funds' largecap investment universe is expected to see seven changes in the upcoming stock reclassification exercise by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi). According to a report by IIFL Securities, Hero MotoCorp, Zydus Lifesciences, JSW Energy, NHPC, Bharat Heavy Electricals, Bosch and Samvardhana Motherson are expected to earn upgrades in the revised list of largecap, midcap and smallcap stocks set to be released in the first week of July. Amfi revises the list at the start of January and July every year based on the previous six-month performance of the stock.
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Nitin Narkhede your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
HDFC Bank on Tuesday said RBI has given approval to the group to acquire up to 9.5 per cent stake each in six lenders, including ICICI Bank and Axis Bank.
'The problem is that the bubble may not only be in valuations, but also in investors' minds.'
rediffGURU Dev Ashish answers your personal finance and mutual fund queries.
Paper gold saves your investments from volatility, and you from hassles that come with the physical form. The chance of good returns gives that extra shine.
The 100-stock largecap basket of Mutual funds (MFs) has seen a major reshuffle in the latest semi-annual reclassification with seven midcap stocks and four new listings earning the largecap tag. According to a report from Nuvama Alternative & Quantitative Research, the midcap stocks that have been upgraded include CG Power, Rail Vikas Nigam, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, Polycab India, Indus Towers, Cummins India, and Info Edge.
The market capitalisation (mcap) cutoff to qualify for mutual funds' (MFs') largecap universe is likely to go up for the fifth consecutive time to touch the Rs 1 trillion mark for the first time. A fresh list of largecap, midcap, and smallcap stocks is set to be released by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) in the first week of January.
Only investors with a higher risk appetite should enter these funds.
Omkeshwar Singh, head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
rediffGURU Ulhas Joshi answers readers' mutual fund queries
Mutual funds (MFs) managed a record Rs 66.2 trillion in assets during the July-September quarter, marking a 12.3 per cent increase over the previous three-month period - the highest quarterly jump in MF assets in at least five years. During the April-June period, the average assets under management (AUM) stood at Rs 59 trillion. The sharp rise in AUM, according to experts, is driven by a robust equity market rally and record inflows into equity schemes.
Since MAAFs invest across multiple asset classes, they offer diversification.
'Investors should continue with their SIPs, especially during market corrections.' 'For those looking to start new SIPs, beginning with large-cap funds is a prudent strategy, followed by flexi-cap and value-oriented approaches.'
Commissions paid to mutual fund distributors (MFDs) increased by over 20 per cent for most large fund houses in 2023-24 (FY24), driven by a sharp market rally and strong inflows. The largest fund house, SBI Mutual Fund (MF), which now manages nearly Rs 10 trillion in assets, paid Rs 2,025 crore to its major distributors - 21 per cent higher than the Rs 1,675 crore payout in 2022-23 (FY23).
Nikunj Saraf, Vice President Choice Wealth, answers your queries.
Midcap stocks Hero MotoCorp, Zydus Lifesciences, JSW Energy, NHPC, Bharat Heavy Electricals, Bosch, and Samvardhana Motherson are expected to earn upgrades.
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.
Data from Amfi shows that NAV of every one in two BAFs declined 1.5% or less on Monday compared to a 3.13% decline in Nifty 500.
Among the 11 equity sub-categories, thematic funds received the highest net inflows at Rs 9,017 crore, followed by smallcap funds at Rs 5,721 crore and flexicap funds at Rs 5,698 crore.
Do you have financial planning or income tax queries? Ask rediffGURU Anil Rego.
PIDP follows a bottom-up stock-picking strategy and prefers to invest in companies that have the potential to compound their cash flows over the years
