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.
'If you are investing in a Ulip for returns, go for a type I Ulip.' 'If you are investing for insurance cover as well, type II is better.'
Omkeshwar Singh, head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
"We remain open to opportunities if appropriate valuations come up," said Reliance MF CEO Sundeep Sikka. Reliance MF, which is India's biggest mutual fund in terms of assets under management, has also become the first fund house to cross an average AUM of Rs 1 lakh crore. "Consolidation has already started in the industry and, going forward, only top 5-7 fund houses would command the major chunk of funds as investors will have confidence in large fund houses," Sikka said.
Mutual funds (MFs) scooped up smallcap shares across sectors such as healthcare, banking and financial services in March 2024 amid a near 4.5 per cent fall in key smallcap indices. Aster DM Healthcare, NLC India, and Aavas Financiers topped the list of most-bought stocks in the Rs 10,000-40,000 crore market capitalisation (mcap) bracket, according to a study by Nuvama Alternative & Quantitative Research. Aster and Aavas had corrected by 13 per cent and 10 per cent in March, respectively, while NLC India ended the month with a 2.5 per cent gain.
UTI Mutual Fund will hit the capital markets with initial public offering on Tuesday for its sixth thematic funds including auto, banking and public sector undertakings.
Shrinking inflows and surging outflows on account of profit-booking has curtailed mutual fund (MF) investments in equities since April. The total investments made by equity MFs during the first three months of 2023-24 stands at just Rs 2,980 crore, compared with an average monthly investment of Rs 14,500 crore in 2022-23, reveals data from the Securities and Exchange Board of India. "We are seeing signs of moderation in non-systematic investment plan (SIP) contribution, which has impacted domestic fund inflows in recent months to some extent," says Kunal Vora, head-India equity research, BNP Paribas.
Reliance Mutual Fund has launched a pharma fund in India -- its third sector specific fund after banking and power -- and expects to raise over Rs 200 crore.
rediffGURU Jinal Mehta answers readers' financial planning and health insurance queries
Markets regulator Sebi has ordered the attachment of bank and demat accounts as well as mutual fund holdings of Videocon Group founder Venugopal Dhoot to recover dues totalling Rs 5.16 lakh. The latest decision has been taken after Dhoot failed to pay the fine imposed on him in March by Sebi for not making disclosures about his interest in Supreme Energy as well as for not disclosing that Quality Techno Advisors Pvt Ltd (QTAPL) and Credential Finance Ltd (CFL) were related parties with respect to certain transactions. In an attachment notice on Monday, Sebi said the pending dues of Rs 5.16 lakh include the initial fine of Rs 5 lakh, interest of Rs 15,000 and a recovery cost of Rs 1,000.
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.
Although net inflows into equity mutual funds deteriorated month-on-month (M-o-M) in March 2024 to Rs 22,576 crore (excluding Hybrid), down 15 per cent M-o-M (up 12 per cent Y-o-Y), asset management companies (AMCs) had a great year with robust growth in assets under management (AUMs). AMCs are likely to report strong PAT growth (30-40 per cent Y-o-Y) in Q4FY24 on the back of AUM growth. In Q4FY24, domestic mutual fund (MF) industry's quarterly average AUM grew by 34 per cent Y-o-Y and 10 per cent quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-Q) to Rs 54 trillion ($652 billion).
'Historically, equities have consistently outperformed debt, gold, property, and other assets over a reasonable period.'
Building a MF portfolio is akin to building and furnishing your home. There is no model portfolio to suit everyone's needs, so you can follow a few rules to build yourself one.
Mutual fund is an investment vehicle that is made up of a pool of funds collected from many investors for the purpose of investing in securities such as stocks, bonds, money market instruments and similar assets.
After Bandhan MF's US Treasury Bond 0-1 year Fund of Fund (FoF), Aditya Birla Sun Life (ABSL) MF has come out with US Treasury 1-3 Year Bond ETFs FoF and 3-10 Year Bond ETFs FoF. US bonds, which generally offer low yields, have turned attractive post the 525-basis point hike in US interest rates. According to Bloomberg data, the 1-year and 2-year US treasury yields now stand at 5.4 per cent and 5.1 per cent, respectively. Although the yields remain lower than what Indian government bonds offer, the differential has come down steeply.
If you don't make the necessary adjustments after October 1, 2024, you'll stop earning interest on accounts that aren't in compliance rediffGURU Milind Vadjikar
Several of the mutual fund schemes have plans like dividend, growth and bonus.
Midcap stocks Hero MotoCorp, Zydus Lifesciences, JSW Energy, NHPC, Bharat Heavy Electricals, Bosch, and Samvardhana Motherson are expected to earn upgrades.
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.
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As per the revised structure, the ARN fees for NBFCs have seen the biggest decline of 80 per cent to Rs 100,000 (from Rs 500,000 earlier), while fees for proprietary firms have also been slashed considerably from Rs 10,000 to Rs 3,000.
Anil Rego, CEO, Right Horizons, answers your personal income tax queries.
Market watchdog Sebi on Thursday asked mutual fund companies not to deduct marketing and distribution charges from investment made by subscribers, a move which analysts termed "revolutinary for investors".
Reliance MF, the country's largest fund house, has witnessed an increase of about 13 per cent with the average AUM crossing the Rs 1,00,000 crore mark in May as compared to Rs 88,387.98 crore at the end of April. In May 2008, it had crossed the Rs 100,000 crore mark, but in terms of total assets under management. This time, the level has been crossed in the average monthly AUM, which is taken into consideration in the data released by the Association of Mutual Funds of India.
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Milind Vadjikar your insurance, stocks, mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Until now, these platforms were either working through an investment advisory (IA) or stockbroking licence.
This feat was achieved 25 years after the mutual funds industry was opened to private players. The industry now aims to achieve the next Rs 25 trillion in 5 years.
Sebi has time and again voiced its concerns over higher agents' fees.
Here is what mutual fund expert Anil Rego has to say about bonus, entry and exit loads and investing in mutual funds.
'Forget your loss or profit in your portfolio.' 'Look at how much cash you have in hand.' 'If you don't have cash in hand, liquidate at least partially; get into about 20 per cent in cash.'
Mukul K Gupta, CEO, Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund took some time from his busy schedule to address the issues and concerns raised by the investors
India's mutual fund industry, led by market leaders Reliance Mutual Fund, ICICI Prudential and UTI MF, has witnessed a fall of over Rs 58,000 crore (Rs 580 billion) in its assets during March.Despite the fall, Reliance MF continued to be the most valued fund house in the country with Assets Under Management (AUM) of Rs 90,937.94 crore (Rs 909.37 billion) at the end of March.
The last fiscal marked the fourth consecutive year of loss of folios by mutual funds.
Chandresh Nigam will join Prudential-ICICI MF in July as senior fund manager (equity), and will report to Dileep Madgavkar, vhief investment officer.
Mutual funds have ratcheted up Rs 53,700 crore (Rs 537 billion) through new fund offers (NFOs) in 2022 until November, against Rs 1 trillion in Calendar 2021, notwithstanding the number of launches this year eclipsing the 2021 tally. Industry insiders cite the absence of launches in popular categories as the reason behind lower collections this year. Typically, only NFOs in popular categories from major fund houses rake in the moolah.
