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).
Drop in the number of schemes is less than 3%, despite merger of 38 schemes between Sept 2017 and May this year
Omkeshwar Singh, head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your 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.
'Historically, equities have consistently outperformed debt, gold, property, and other assets over a reasonable period.'
Midcap stocks Hero MotoCorp, Zydus Lifesciences, JSW Energy, NHPC, Bharat Heavy Electricals, Bosch, and Samvardhana Motherson are expected to earn upgrades.
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Milind Vadjikar your insurance, stocks, mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
'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.'
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.
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.
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.
Until now, these platforms were either working through an investment advisory (IA) or stockbroking licence.
Several of the mutual fund schemes have plans like dividend, growth and bonus.
Anil Rego, CEO, Right Horizons, answers your personal income tax queries.
Ulhas Joshi, Head -- Sales, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
The cash pile within smallcap mutual fund (MF) schemes has grown over the past few months amid a relentless rally in stocks in this space. While fund managers usually don't make cash calls, incessant inflows and valuation discomfort have forced their hand. At the end of January, the top 10 schemes had over Rs 12,160 crore in cash, compared to Rs 8,700 crore in August 2023.
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.
The painter criticises many of Bollywood's best and brightest.
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.
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".
Now that bank FD rates have gone up and most BAFs haven't delivered good returns, these investors are likely to be moving back to FDs, observed a senior MF distributor. The performance of BAFs in the past year has been mixed.
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.
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.
The steady inflows from systematic investment plans (SIPs) into mutual funds (MFs), coupled with outflows from debt schemes, has propelled the share of SIPs in the total assets being managed by the industry to a new high of 17.1 per cent in February. SIPs are used predominantly by retail investors. Nearly seven of every 10 SIP accounts are in equity-oriented active MF schemes.
Sebi has time and again voiced its concerns over higher agents' fees.
rediffGURU Sunil Lala answers your MF-related queries.
Here is what mutual fund expert Anil Rego has to say about bonus, entry and exit loads and investing in mutual funds.
'If their allocation to certain segments have become high due to strong returns over the past three-four years, they should rebalance their portfolios and bring them in line with their long-term asset allocation.'
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.
Two equity funds at the opposite ends of the risk matrix - small-cap and arbitrage - bucked the 'low inflow' trend in May this calendar year 2023 (CY23) to receive the highest net inflows in recent years. The Rs 3,280-crore net inflows into small-cap schemes in May was the highest for the category since the mutual fund (MF) industry started releasing fund-wise inflow data in April 2019. Arbitrage schemes raked in a net Rs 6,640 crore - the highest since July 2021.
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
