Non-resident Indians (NRIs) haven't gone big on the Indian stock market story despite the post-pandemic boom. While domestic participation through mutual funds (MFs) and dematerialised accounts has soared, NRI participation figures show limited signs of a similar rise.
More than 50 per cent of SIP accounts come from semi-urban and rural areas.
After three post-pandemic years of an upcycle, it was a mixed bag for the realty sector in 2025, with sales volumes in the residential real estate moderating across top cities, and commercial real estate and institutional investments emerging as standout performers. Residential: Volumes soften, value holds firm.
High energy costs, long a drag on India's manufacturing competitiveness, are finally easing. Power and fuel expenses accounted for 1.98 per cent of net sales in 2024-25, the lowest level in data compiled by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) over the past two decades.
Inflows into equity mutual fund (MF) schemes declined for the third month in a row in March even though the equity market recovered sharply. Equity MF schemes raked in a net Rs 25,082 crore in March, down 14 per cent from February.
Investors are yet to warm up to the concept of sustainable investing with sustainable or ESG (environmental, social, and governance) funds in India witnessing outflows of Rs 315 crore in 2021-22. This comes following a staggering inflow of Rs 4,884 crore in FY 2020-21. Prior to that, sustainable funds saw an infusion of over Rs 2,000 crore, according to data compiled by Morningstar India.
The United States, which entered this war in expectation of a short, sharp win along the Venezuela model, is now preparing for deeper involvement in a conflict it does not fully control, without the allies it typically relies on, against an adversary that is not behaving as expected, in a global environment that is already absorbing economic shock. Prem Panicker continues his must read daily blog on the Gulf War.
While the minimum holding period for LTCG taxation has now been lowered, the tax outgo could be a bit higher under the new structure.
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.
In January, SIP account closures surpassed new registrations for the first time.
Though many such funds may not make the grade, it would be foolhardy to ignore them
The interplay between domestic and foreign capital will shape India's equity markets.
At a time when exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were unloading Jio Financial Services from their portfolios, some active fund managers were placing large bets on the demerged financial services arm of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), a report by Nuvama Alternative & Quantitative Research shows. Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund and Quant Mutual Fund were the top MF buyers of the stock in August. They bought around 60 million shares each, together investing around Rs 2,800 crore.
"Investor focus is shifting from equity to debt funds because of the extreme volatile market conditions," Association of Mutual Funds in India chairman, A P Kurian, told reporters on a Wednesday at a seminar on risk and compliance being held in Mumbai.
The average ticket size for a systematic investment plan (SIP) is edging up, even as the pace of new account openings remains strong. SIP ticket sizes had been shrinking in recent years, as mutual fund (MF) penetration grew. However, the average ticket size has started to climb again after a steep drop in the post-pandemic period, as the industry has doubled its investor base in the past four years.
New investor additions by mutual funds (MFs) have slowed dramatically in recent months, indicating that market correction and a rise in volatility are somewhat dimming the appeal of equity schemes. MFs have onboarded 300,000 new investors in April 2025, the lowest in 22 months.
Mirae Asset Management, one of South Korea's biggest investment companies, hopes to launch its first mutual fund in India early in the new year after the country's regulators last week gave it a licence to operate.
'The government is actively engaging with EU to ensure that concerns of Indian companies and hard-to-abate sectors are adequately addressed under CBAM'
The combined average assets under management of the 33 fund houses in the country dropped to Rs 5,64,599.28 crore (Rs 5,645.99 billion) at the end of June as compared to Rs 6,00,266.32 crore (Rs 6,002.66 billion) in May, according to data released by the Association of Mutual Funds in India. Reliance Mutual Fund continues to be the top fund house in the country despite its average AUM falling to Rs 90,813.45 crore (Rs 908.13 billion).
The mutual fund industry sees the series of recent regulatory measures as a game-changer -- something that has prompted it to think out of the box on increasing the penetration from the existing 4-5 per cent of household savings.
'Funds based on this theme offer socially conscious investors an option to invest in a portfolio that is aligned to their beliefs.'
'For most investors, I recommend a low double-digit allocation (10 to 12 per cent) to gold and silver combined.'
Industry body Association of Mutual Funds in India on Friday assured investors that a majority of fixed income mutual funds assets are invested in superior credit quality securities and such schemes have appropriate liquidity to ensure normal operations. The statement by the industry body came after Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund voluntarily decided to wind up its six debt schemes citing redemption pressure and lack of liquidity in bond markets due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Nitin Narkhede your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Midcap stocks Hero MotoCorp, Zydus Lifesciences, JSW Energy, NHPC, Bharat Heavy Electricals, Bosch, and Samvardhana Motherson are expected to earn upgrades.
Time for approving new fund offers down from 6 months to 2 months; MFs have mobilised Rs 4,000 crore from nearly 30 equity NFOs since October last year.
'There is a lot of euphoria in the country after a trade agreement is signed. But it is an illusion for us. What is more important is making it real.'
A strong influx of 11 equity new fund offers (NFOs) in June, particularly within the thematic space, helped mutual funds collect Rs 14,370 crore - the highest ever via such introductory offers. This surpassed the previous high recorded in July 2021, where four NFOs accumulated Rs 13,709 crore, with ICICI Prudential MF's flexicap NFO alone mobilising Rs 9,808 crore.
Equity mutual funds (MFs) capped a strong 2024 with near-record inflows in December. With net inflows of Rs 41,156 crore in December, the 2024 tally surged to Rs 3.9 trillion, up 144 per cent compared to 2023. The December tally, which was only slightly short of the record-high inflows of Rs 41,887 crore achieved in October 2024, was fuelled by record inflows of Rs 9,761 crore into small-cap and mid-cap funds.
Mutual Fund inflows in FY25 have already reached two-thirds of the total inflows seen in the entire FY24, with net inflows standing at Rs 1.3 trillion.
Mutual fund bets in their own schemes are nearing the Rs 1 trillion mark. The total value of sponsor and associate investments across all categories of schemes touched Rs 95,058 crore in February, according to a Business Standard analysis of data from industry body the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi). This represents a 28.9 per cent increase over March 2023.
Specialised investment fund (SIF), a new asset class, will have the same expense structure as that of mutual funds (MFs), according to rules notified by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). SIF, which was first proposed by Sebi in July 2024, aims to fill the gap between MFs and portfolio management services (PMS), and it looks at informed investors, who are willing to take riskier bets.
'The correction in the markets in the initial part of August provided investors a good buying opportunity.'
Canadian firm Manulife and Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), an Indian automaker with interests in financial services, have signed an agreement to form a 50:50 life insurance joint venture (JV) with a total capital commitment of up to Rs 3,600 crore each totalling Rs 7,200 crore.
'It is requested that listed equity shares or units of equity-oriented fund schemes be exempted from capital gains tax (LTCG) if equity shares or mutual funds units are held for at least three years.'
As the rally in precious metals takes centre stage in 2025, most analysts recommend a larger allocation to gold over silver despite the latter's outperformance this year. In the current calendar year (CY25), spot gold prices in dollar terms rallied
