Mutual funds are sitting on a huge cash pile of Rs 22,908 crore (Rs 229.08 billion). The absolute cash levels for all existing equity funds rose by 17.4 per cent to Rs 16,642 crore (Rs 166.42 billion) in February 2008 from Rs 14,176 crore (Rs 141.76 billion), in January 2008. Even the cash as a percentage of the total corpus increased to 8.7 per cent in January 2008, from 7.6 per cent in December 2007. The rising cash levels indicate the cautious outlook of the fund managers.
rediffGURU Ulhas Joshi answers your personal finance and mutual fund queries.
'In an economy that is set to double in the coming years, stopping SIPs will take investors out of this growth path.'
Markets pose a host of options - insurance, mutual funds, select post office schemes, PPF etc. Where you invest should depend on your needs, says financial planning expert Rahul Goel.
While there's tax arbitrage advantage in ULIPs now, experts say investors should prefer mutual funds for long-term savings.
Monthly SIP inflow is Rs 6,000 crore, with a little over 1.75 million accounts
Nikunj Saraf, Vice President Choice Wealth, answers your queries.
'Exposure to small and midcap stocks exceeded desired levels in many portfolios, prompting rebalancing.'
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.
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.
Investors pumped in a record Rs 40,608 crore into equity mutual funds in June, 17 per cent higher than in May 2024, industry body Amfi said on Tuesday. The flows into the systematic investment plans (SIPs) also reached a new high at Rs 21,262 crore for the month, which was higher than the previous high of Rs 20,904 crore recorded in May, it said. The net assets under management (AUM) for the entire MF industry on equity schemes stood at Rs 27.67 lakh crore, while the same from SIPs was Rs 12.43 lakh crore, the body said.
Banks are parking funds not just in securities qualifying for maintenance of statutory liquidity ratio (SLR), but also in mutual funds (MFs).
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.
Quant funds are a unique offering in the MF space as the investment decisions are driven by a blend of active and passive strategies.
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.
Dept. of Public Enterprises have reminded CPSEs to invest surplus money only in govt-owned MFs.
'Indian non-bank lenders stand exposed to a deteriorating credit quality environment.' 'Such a deterioration could put at risk the value of NCDs purchased by the mutual funds and expose investors in bond and liquid funds to a risk of capital loss.'
Data shows of the 385 companies, which had announced their latest shareholding, fund houses cut their stake in about 200.
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.
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.
We have no idea where the stock markets are headed in the near term. we cater to clients who are inevsting for the long term, for which we have a view, says personal finance expert Rahul Goel.
With the stock coming under pressure, the MF holding value could have dropped to Rs 50 billion, back-of-the-envelope calculations show.
Half a dozen stocks from the large-cap universe and over two dozen from the mid-cap universe have been replaced.
Omkeshwar Singh, Head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
Despite strong AUM growth, MFs lag behind other popular investment avenues. MFs received only 6 per cent of total household savings in 2021-2022.
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.
Capital markets regulator Sebi has amended norms to bring buying and selling of mutual fund units under the ambit of insider trading rules. At present, insider trading rules are applicable to dealing in securities of listed companies or those proposed to be listed, when in possession of Unpublished Price Sensitive Information (UPSI). The units of mutual funds are specifically excluded from the definition of securities under the rules.
Tax saving mutual fund schemes invest in the stock markets and therefore carry risk as compared to say a PPF or a NSC.
In a capital protection scheme, fund houses usually invest a hefty chunk (say 80 per cent) of investor money in debt papers, while parking the remaining 20 per cent with equities.
We have no idea where the markets are headed in the near term. In fact, we do not pay much heed to the Sensex as it is dominated by only a handful of stocks, says Rahul Goel.
Mutual funds (MFs) invested a record Rs 1.73 trillion in equities in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23), providing strong support to the Indian markets at a time when foreign investors were redeeming their holdings. They exceeded the previous high of nearly Rs 1.72 trillion investment in equities in FY22. The data from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) shows MFs were net buyers in the equity market in eleven of the twelve months last financial year.
Equity supply may hit Rs 6 trillion soon.
Have you wondered how many days of work -- depending on your net monthly income -- you would have to put in to buy the top-end iPhone 16 Pro?
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.
According to market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India, MF investments in banking stocks reached Rs 48,419 crore (Rs 484.19 billion) as on May 31, accounting for 21.59 per cent of their total equity assets under management (of Rs 2.24 lakh crore or Rs 2.24 trillion).
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has proposed that at least 10 per cent of corporate bond market trades by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) should be done on the request for quote (RFQ) platform. At present, most trades in the corporate bond market are over-the-counter (OTC), creating a lot of opacity. The markets regulator has been nudging debt market participants such as mutual funds (MFs), alternative investment funds (AIFs) and brokers to use the RFQ platform to boost secondary market liquidity and transparency.
Omkeshwar Singh, Head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your 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.
Staggered pull-out will help investors if the market continues to rise.