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.
Domestic investors are tightening their grip on the ownership of listed companies. The gap between the shareholding of domestic institutional investors (DIIs) and foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) narrowed to 13.11 percentage points at the end of the September 2023 quarter. At the peak, the gap was nearly 50 percentage points in March 2015, according to an analysis by Prime Database, a leading provider of data on the capital market.
If you thought high ranking was enough to invest in mutual funds, it's not.
Despite strong AUM growth, MFs lag behind other popular investment avenues. MFs received only 6 per cent of total household savings in 2021-2022.
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.
After a short-term blip, mutual funds (MFs) are back to adding new systematic investment plan (SIP) investors at a record high pace, which was seen during the financial year 2021-22 (FY22). During the first six months (H1) of this financial year (FY24), MFs have added a net 77 million SIP accounts compared to 56 million during the same period of FY23. The net additions this year are a tad higher than the 76.5 million additions in H1 of FY22.
To make sure liquid schemes reflect the underlying portfolio risks, Sebi has said all debt papers with maturity of 30 days or more to be marked to market. Earlier, fund houses didn't have to do so for securities that had less than 60-day maturity.
MFs greet FMs decision on overseas investment
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.
Flow surge in equity schemes is an important reason why Indian stock market did not crash.
Portfolio management services (PMS), catering to higher networth individuals (HNIs), are facing tough competition from emerging alternative investment funds (AIFs), evident from their dwindling client base. In May, the number of clients for the industry stood at 125,390, down 20,528 in two months, shows data from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). "PMS managers also have a high active ratio, which means their portfolios are quite differently positioned and more actively managed, compared to the benchmark, which is also a highlight for long-term investors.
The previous high was in February this year when investment in the sector rose to Rs 28,784 crore or Rs 287.84 billion.
Last month, the Sahara Group challenged a Supreme Court order which had asked it to refund Rs 24,000 crore (Rs 240 billion) to around three crore (30 million) investors, to a larger bench.
Steep volatility in the markets has made fund managers cautious, awaiting opportunities to deploy the cash.
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).
The Indian equity market clocked record average daily turnover (ADTV) in both the cash and derivatives segments in February amid a spike in volatility. The ADTV for the cash segment for both the exchanges combined came at Rs 1.27 trillion, while the same for the derivatives or the futures and options (F&O) segment stood at Rs 483 trillion in the previous month. The volumes for both cash and derivatives have almost doubled from a year ago on the back of rising retail participation in the world's fourth largest equity market.
The regulator, at its board meeting on Thursday evening, agreed to the MFs' long-pending demand to incentivise agents for losses suffered due to the abolition of entry charge on investors.
'Historically, equities have consistently outperformed debt, gold, property, and other assets over a reasonable period.'
For the third month running, investors opened over four million new demat accounts in February, showing growing household confidence in stock markets and their increased risk appetite. Over 13.12 million new demat accounts have been opened in the last three months, taking the total count close to the 150-million mark. Demat accounts are needed for trading and holding shares electronically.
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.
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
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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.
Equity mutual funds (MFs) deployed maximum in shares of Reliance Industries (RIL) in June at Rs 2,177 crore, followed by Maruti Suzuki (Rs 2,045 crore) and Bharti Airtel (Rs 1,310 crore). Shares of both RIL and Bharti Airtel have been turbulent this month. On July 1, shares of RIL crashed over 7 per cent, following the government imposing windfall taxes on domestic crude oil production and fuel exports.
Mutual fund houses have been on an equity buying spree in the past three months as they have invested a net amount of Rs 55,000 crore in them between January and March 2023. The number is more than double the amount deployed in the preceding three months (October to December), signalling improved valuations and favourable economic indicators. The valuations, which had peaked in October 2021, returned to its long-term average in March 2023.
'Looking at the speed at which changes were made post the Franklin Templeton issue, we are awaiting more stricter norms in the months to come.'
Omkeshwar Singh, Head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
As a prudent investor who wants to create a portfolio that will help you achieve your investment objective in a time-bound manner, Suren Kochhar explains what you should know.
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.
Banks are parking funds not just in securities qualifying for maintenance of statutory liquidity ratio (SLR), but also in mutual funds (MFs).
With the stock coming under pressure, the MF holding value could have dropped to Rs 50 billion, back-of-the-envelope calculations show.
'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.'
'If you are ready to stomach the loss, you may invest 3-5 per cent of your portfolio in crypto assets.' 'Of this, 80-90 per cent should be in Bitcoin.'
Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has tweaked the benchmarking norms for mutual fund (MF) schemes in a bid to bring more uniformity. The regulator has introduced a two-tiered structure for benchmarking of schemes and all the benchmarks followed should be total return index (TRI). According to the circular, the first-tier benchmark shall be reflective of the category of the scheme, and the second-tier benchmark should be demonstrative of the fund manager's investment style or strategy within the category.
'Given the inherent volatility, investors should take at least a three to five-year view.'
Data shows of the 385 companies, which had announced their latest shareholding, fund houses cut their stake in about 200.
Dept. of Public Enterprises have reminded CPSEs to invest surplus money only in govt-owned MFs.
Omkeshwar Singh, Head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries
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