Mutual funds predominantly bought engineering, media, pharma, and oil and gas stocks in July
In the rat race to garner more assets and reach number one position, mutual fund houses look for distributors who can sell more. But does it serve your interests?
Even as the returns of mutual fund (MF) schemes have improved considerably in the past three months, addition of new investors has remained in the slow lane for the MF industry. According to industry data, during the first six months of CY 2023, MFs onboarded only 1.6 million new unique investors, in stark contrast to the 4.7 million investors added during the same period last CY and the 2.4 million in 2021. It is noteworthy, however, that the current additions for this year have doubled in comparison to the figure of 800,000 seen in 2020.
Mid- and small-cap funds dominate the list, opening up opportunity for investors to make contra bets in large-cap funds
With domestic markets turning choppy, investors are increasingly scouting for opportunities overseas to diversify portfolios and hedge against a weakening rupee.
Before deciding to go for mutual fund ELSS, here are some points to ponder over.
It should be made mandatory for customers to write their name, application number and contact number on the reverse of the cheque.
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.
According to sources, in a January 6 letter to the department of financial services under the finance ministry, LIC said it wanted to stop sponsoring LIC Nomura Mutual Fund, and might offer some of its stake in LIC Housing Finance to other shareholders.
These are the top 8 out of 88 funds that the diversified equity fund category has to offer.
Equity flows turning positive could give fund managers firepower to invest in the markets. This could come in handy as flows from foreign investors have tapered off amid rising bond yields in the US.
Mutual funds bought metal, media, telecom, engineering, and pharma stocks in December
HNI equity folios up 46% in the first half of FY15.
Analysts are increasingly optimistic about India's capital markets, with HDFC AMC, CAMS, and KFin Technologies identified as top investment picks. This optimism stems from a structural shift in household savings towards financial instruments and an expected multi-year earnings expansion for market infrastructure providers and asset management companies.
Experts say you may invest in small-sized funds and benefit from their nimbleness.
Until now, these platforms were either working through an investment advisory (IA) or stockbroking licence.
Investors should do thorough due diligence when selecting a platform.
Inflow in equity mutual funds dropped by 22 per cent to Rs 33,430 crore in August primarily due to a sharp fall in new fund offers (NFOs), data released by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) showed on Wednesday. Also, the latest fund infusion by investors marks the 54th consecutive month of net inflows into the segment.
The information and technology (IT) sector, which has been going through a rough patch lately, was among the top draws for equity mutual funds (MFs) in July. MF schemes together invested a net of Rs 1,800 crores in IT stocks last month after pulling out around Rs 700 crore from the sector in June, according to a report by ICICI Securities.
'Mark Mobius's life was dedicated to investing.'
Passive funds appeal to investors seeking to avoid the risk of underperformance by the fund manager and minimise the need for frequent chopping and changing of funds.
The volume of new fund offerings (NFOs) in 2025 will fluctuate based on market conditions. However, innovation is expected to continue unabated. With an increasing number of fund houses aiming to establish a presence in the 'factor' investing space and changes in fund-of-fund taxation providing more opportunities, several industry-first offerings are anticipated.
After relentlessly selling shares for most of 2013, India's equity mutual fund managers have turned buyers in the fag-end of the year.
A Balasubramanian tells Business Standard that the sector will see one of its best phases in the coming five years.
The country's 44 fund houses together garnered an average Asset Under Management) of Rs 9.04 lakh crore (Rs 9.04 trillion) during the January-March quarter of 2013-14, up from Rs 8.76 lakh crore (Rs 8.76 trillion) in the previous three-month period, Crisil said attributing the data to the Association of Mutual Funds in India.
The time is ripe for a merger of eight fund houses indirectly owned and controlled by the central government, says N Sundaresha Subramanian.
'First-time or conservative investors should avoid narrow sectoral funds.'
Some of the public banks showed improvement; much more still needs to be done
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is discussing with mutual funds (MFs) a proposal on introducing new total expense ratio (TER) slabs linked to the total equity and debt assets by replacing the current ones that are linked to assets of an individual scheme. Senior MF executives confirmed that Sebi had held discussions on this matter with AMCs. Such a change is expected to lead to a lower TER cap for bigger asset management companies (AMCs).
2025 marked a shift in investor preference when it comes to MF schemes.
Mutual funds (MFs) are betting on a turnaround in the healthcare sector to boost returns but are divided on the prospects of the information technology (IT) sector amid uncertain growth outlook. At the end of June, all of the top 20 fund houses were overweight on the healthcare sector vis--vis the sector's presence in the BSE 200 index, shows a report by Motilal Oswal Financial Services (MOFS). In the case of the IT sector, only six of the 20 fund houses had overweight positions.
During 2013-14, the number of investor folios for equity schemes fell by 40 lakh.
'New investors should enter gradually and stay cautious.' 'Silver is a structural multi-year story, but timing matters in a high-volatility metal.'
At a time when investors are preferring higher-risk investment products like thematic and small-cap mutual fund (MF) schemes, some fund houses are exploring the possibility of going further down the market-capitalisation (m-cap) ladder to unearth newer investment opportunities. HDFC MF had filed papers with the capital markets regulator - the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) - earlier this year for an active micro-cap scheme. Some more fund houses are keen on launching such schemes, say industry observers.
The average fall in 15 most-invested stocks by equity MFs was 5.7 per cent. Chandan Kishore Kant reports
The assets in control of MFs soared to a record high of Rs 17.9 lakh crore last month
Passive funds have resumed gaining ground in the mutual fund (MF) industry after a slowdown in 2024, with their share of assets under management (AUM) reaching an all-time high in 2025. The surge has been driven largely by robust inflows into gold and silver exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
If we really want to curb the further depreciation of the rupee and make the rupee appreciate, we want to come out of the mindset that the exchange rate is merely a number, bring policy corrections to help reduce the outflow of foreign exchange by imposing suitable tariffs to discourage imports and bring self reliance, discipline FPIs, and correcting rules governing royalty outflows, suggests Dr Ashwani Mahajan, National Co-Convenor, Swadeshi Jagaran Manch.
Gwadar is viewed as a critical pearl in China's maritime strategy as it would give a permanent logistical footprint near an important choke point - the Strait of Hormuz and the oil rich Persian Gulf, explains Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
