Ask rediffGURU Reetika Sharma your insurance, mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
A significant majority (57%) of India's investment advisors are concentrated in just five metro cities, leading to concerns about financial inclusion and the spread of financial market products beyond urban centres, according to a Business Standard analysis of Sebi data.
'Multi-asset funds have cornered 30 per cent of hybrid fund inflows in 2025, reflecting a growing preference for diversified portfolios that combine equity, debt and commodities.'
rediffGURU Jinal Mehta answers readers' financial planning and health insurance queries
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Nitin Narkhede your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
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.
Ask rediffGURU Naveenn Kummar your insurance mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
State Bank of India on Saturday reported an all-time high profit of Rs 21,028 crore in December quarter FY26 on a standalone basis.
Among its 27 recommendations for the Union Budget is this: It has suggested that equity investments held for more than one year and up to three years should be taxed at 12.5 per cent on gains exceeding 2 lakh in a financial year.
Net inflows into equity mutual funds (MFs) moderated for the second straight month in September, declining 9 per cent during the month to Rs 30,422 crore. The slowdown came as redemptions from active equity schemes rose 30 per cent month-on-month (M-o-M) to a one-year high of around Rs 36,000 crore.
Ask rediffGURU Reetika Sharma your insurance, mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Mutual funds (MFs) have significantly increased their ownership across market segments, but the midcap space stands out with comparatively higher growth. Data reveals that the number of midcap companies with over a fifth of MF ownership has doubled from nine in March 2022 to 18 by March 2025. In contrast, largecap stocks saw only a marginal rise, from three to four such companies during the same period.
The highlight in January, with no surprise, has been flows into gold and silver ETFs.
Ask rediffGURU Reetika Sharma your insurance, mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
'In my entire career, whenever friends, relatives, or associates have sought my counsel, I have told them consistently: Stay away from equities. Buy gold. Place funds in fixed deposits. Acquire some raw land.' 'That is all one genuinely needs to build meaningful, enduring wealth, without the attendant anxiety of equity market participation.'
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.
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Nitin Narkhede your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Retail investors' equity portfolios have significantly underperformed benchmark indices over the past 16 to 18 months.
'The day is not too far when the share of MFs alone will be greater than that of foreign institutional investors.'
The continued MF buying has pushed the equity holding of MFs to over Rs 50 trillion for the first time.
Sensex and Nifty post steepest weekly loss in over a year, falling nearly 3 per cent.
Sebi is working with other regulators to expand the CAS framework.
Inflows into mutual fund (MF) schemes via systematic investment plans (SIPs) have topped Rs 3 trillion for the first time in a calendar year, as investors increasingly rely on the staggered investment route amid market volatility.
In November, six primary market issuances accounted for more than 13,000 crore of net equity investments by MFs.
Inflows into equity mutual fund (MF) schemes declined in May, logging their lowest tally in 13 months at Rs 19,013 crore. It came even as the gross systematic investment plan (SIP) inflows surged to a record high of Rs 26,688 crore.
Cash holdings of equity mutual fund (MF) schemes moderated in September amid a slowdown in fresh inflows. Equity MF schemes held cash worth Rs 1.76 trillion at the end of September 2025 - about Rs 400 crore lower than the previous month, according to a report by Nuvama Alternative & Quantitative Research.
While Angel One and Unifi Capital have obtained the final licence, Jio BlackRock, Capitalmind, Choice International and Cosmea Financial Holdings have received in-principle approvals.
'Sebi's move to cap brokerage charges will help investors by lowering the overall cost of investments.'
Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) on Thursday said it has sold 3.53 per cent stake in RBL Bank for Rs 678 crore, representing a 62.5 per cent gain on the investment. On July 26, 2023, the Mumbai-based diversified firm had announced the acquisition of a 3.53 per cent stake in RBL Bank as a treasury investment at a cost of Rs 417 crore.
Ask rediffGURU and PF and MF expert Janak Patel your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Fund managers are divided on the prospects for beaten-down information technology (IT) stocks, reflected in the wide variance in equity mutual funds' (MFs) sector exposure. An analysis by Nuvama Alternative & Quantitative Research shows that while six large fund houses were overweight the sector relative to its weight in the Nifty 200 index, five were underweight as of October 2025. UTI MF had the highest exposure at 17.8 per cent, while SBI MF sat at the bottom with 5 per cent.
'We operate in an economy that is structurally positioned for long-term growth. As market levels rise over time, our AUM grows in line.'
SIP inflows into active equity schemes from areas beyond the top 30 cities (B30), which first crossed this milestone in September 2025, stood at Rs 10,080 crore in October, industry data shows.
The competitive intensity in the mutual fund (MF) industry is moving beyond scheme performance, cost structures, and distribution. In recent months, several fund houses have rationalised exit loads applicable on redemptions.
rediffGURU Vipul Bhavsar answers readers' personal income tax queries.
For every 100 rupees, households invested Rs 45.2 in mutual funds and equities in 2024-2025.
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Nitin Narkhede your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
MF Husain's Untitled (Gram Yatra), a 13-panel masterpiece from the 1950s, has been sold at a Christie's auction in New York for USD 13.8 million, setting a new record for the most expensive work of modern Indian art. The sale nearly doubles the previous record held by Amrita Sher-Gil's "The Story Teller." "Gram Yatra," meaning "village pilgrimage," is considered a cornerstone of Husain's oeuvre, celebrating the diversity of independent India. The painting was acquired by a doctor in Delhi in 1954 and later bequeathed to Oslo University Hospital. The proceeds of the sale will support the training of future doctors at the institution.
Several investors wanting to invest in mutual fund schemes, amid the selloff in the market on Tuesday, were left in the lurch as online MF investment platforms failed to execute the transactions on time.
Inflows into equity mutual fund (MF) schemes declined for the third month in a row in March even though the equity market recovered sharply. Equity MF schemes raked in a net Rs 25,082 crore in March, down 14 per cent from February.
