Amid lowering of bank deposit rates and falling yields from traditional investment vehicles like gold and real estate, investors are fast shifting to financial assets. The MF sector is emerging a clear beneficiary of this trend.
Omkeshwar Singh, head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
Mutual funds are loading up on information technology (IT) stocks on improved valuations and low downside risk after a double-digit correction in top companies like Infosys and Wipro. IT stocks were MFs' top sectoral buys in April when they invested a net of Rs 2,100 crore. In the first four months of 2023, the net investments in IT amounted to Rs 9,500 crore, shows an analysis by ICICI Securities.
As against the existing channels of delivery of banking and financial services in the rural under-banked areas, adoption of mobile financial services (MFS) may tend to be easier, says a study by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A).
'Exposure to small and midcap stocks exceeded desired levels in many portfolios, prompting rebalancing.'
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.
Omkeshwar Singh, Head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
Equity supply may hit Rs 6 trillion soon.
Total assets under management (AUM) for September stood at Rs 20.4 lakh crore compared with Rs 20.6 lakh crore at the end of August.
Fund houses have been barred from being net sellers or holding net short positions at the scheme level in commodities.
Omkeshwar Singh, Head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
The froth in the small and midcap (SMID) space is limited to a few pockets, but regulatory scrutiny could lead to sustained volatility, observe India's top-drawer wealth managers. They add that they have been advising clients to reduce their exposure to smallcaps. Anand Rathi Wealth, which manages investor wealth through mutual funds (MFs), reports that its exposure to smallcap stocks, both through MFs and directly, has decreased by nearly 7 percentage points in the past few months, now standing at 23 per cent.
'Barring a temporary blip where stocks fell on verdict day, we are back to all-time highs.'
Nikunj Saraf, Vice President Choice Wealth, will answers your MF queries.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is reviewing the current stock categorisation framework followed by actively managed equity mutual funds (MFs) to ensure they are true-to-label. Individuals familiar with the matter said the universe of largecap and midcap stocks could be expanded by 25-50 stocks. The move follows concerns raised by industry players that the current threshold has been skewed following a sharp run-up in the domestic markets after the Covid-19 pandemic.
'Money that came into mutual funds near the previous peaks -- the second half of 2017 and 2018 -- has in most cases experienced unflattering returns.' 'A large proportion of redemptions could be such inflows exiting when the market recovered sharply from July 2020 onwards.'
Sebi has allowed mutual fund schemes the option of 'side-pocketing' which move will help both fund houses and investors.
Foreign portfolio investors, on the other hand, have been net sellers in the markethaving pulled out Rs 8,600 crore
Madhabi Puri Buch, the first female chairperson of Sebi, doesn't plan to rest on her laurels in her third and final year in office and has set out an ambitious goal, such as moving towards a same-day and instantaneous settlement cycle for the secondary market.
'Those satisfied with returns and not expecting further rally could be booking profits and also stopping SIPs.'
With the government clearing the decks for direct listing at the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), issuers will wait for the ecosystem to develop further before firming up their listing plans. In the meantime, most companies may continue to prefer listing in the onshore market, even as the new avenue provides key benefits such as tax waivers and reduced foreign exchange risk. Sources said that a few key things need to be ironed out further.
Mutual funds, as experts and custodians of another set of retail investors' savings, play a speculative game they are neither supposed to nor equipped to do, cautions Debashis Basu.
'Understand how wedding expenses fit into your overall financial situation.' 'Evaluate how different levels of spending will impact other goals like retirement, travel, or housing.'
While Jio MF will undoubtedly grow in size, it will have to cross multiple hurdles even to emerge as the market leader, observes Debashis Basu.
Debt funds have exposure of nearly Rs 8,000 crore to Zee group papers. Aditya Birla MF, HDFC MF, Franklin Templeton MF, and ICICI Prudential MF have the highest exposure, reports Samie Modak.
Foreign portfolio investors' (FPIs') shareholding in NSE-listed companies fell 51 basis points sequentially to 17.68 per cent in the quarter ended March 31, 2024, according to data compiled by PRIME Database. This is the lowest FPI shareholding since December 2012. From the recent peak of 21.21 per cent at the end of December 2020, FPI shareholding is down 353 basis points.
It's good to see your fund's corpus rise over time, but when funds become too large, their performance can be adversely impacted. And mid-cap funds are more prone to this phenomenon.
rediffGURU Samkit Maniar answers readers' personal income tax queries.
The mutual fund (MF) industry had an action-packed 2023 as it tackled the scrapping of tax benefits for debt fund investors and surging flows into equity funds.
'Young investors with limited funds should ensure that investing in NPS does not crowd out their other, more liquid, investments.'
The improvement in the performance of actively managed mutual fund (MF) schemes is acting as a key tailwind for the nearly Rs 50 trillion industry, Kotak Institutional Equities (KIE) said in a report. The report adds that the two largest listed asset management companies (AMCs) - HDFC and Nippon India - are likely to be the biggest beneficiaries. "The industry has a solid track record of delivering alpha on 10-year returns (70-80 per cent of assets under management (AUM) beat the benchmark), with shorter duration performance also on an upswing.
The mutual fund industry's assets under management (AUM) have likely breached the Rs 50 trillion mark following a rally in domestic equities this month. The industry's average AUM stood at almost Rs 48 trillion at the end of October. In November, the Nifty50 index has gained about 4 per cent so far, while smallcap and midcap indices have rallied close to 8 per cent.
Sinha says many fund houses not abiding by rules on minimum number of investors, awareness funds
Omkeshwar Singh, head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
Omkeshwar Singh, Head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
Net investments in active equity mutual fund (MF) schemes rose to Rs 7,300 crore in December after declining to a 21-month low of Rs 2,260 crore in November, shows the latest data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi). The rebound in net inflows was driven by a surge in investments and moderation in redemptions. While the inflows into these schemes rose 5 per cent month-on-month (MoM) in December, the redemptions were 14 per cent lower compared to November.
Nikunj Saraf, Vice President Choice Wealth, answers your queries.
ICICI MF recently filed for an ETF that will track the Nifty Alpha Low-Volatility 30 Index. It is part of the suite of smart-beta indices with the NSE, with the portfolio designed using a combination of two factors.
Debt funds typically held 0-5 per cent of their portfolio in cash and cash equivalents before this Sebi diktat.
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