rediffGURU Ramalingam Kalirajan answers your personal finance queries.
BJP leader Pema Khandu took oath as the chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh for the third consecutive term on Thursday.
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Nitin Narkhede your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Begin the year-end review by assessing whether your portfolios are on track to achieve your life goals.
Invest with a 5 to 7 year horizon so that you are able to ride out price volatility and benefit from the long-term trends of demand and macroeconomic shifts.
Most investors should have a 5% to 10% allocation to gold for diversification. They should stagger their investments to mitigate timing risk.
'An equity-based index fund should be held for more than five years to average out market volatility and achieve financial goals.'
Ask rediffGURU and PF and MF expert Janak Patel your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Here's how to get high returns from equities...
'Ideally, one should not time SIPs.' 'If people churn their SIP portfolios, then they are equating the concept of SIPs to lump sums.'
Days after Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar joined the Maharashtra government, the Shiv Sena (UBT) on Wednesday claimed that only alleged economic offenders Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya were left to be inducted into the Bharatiya Janata Party.
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.
Investors should allocate 10 to 15 per cent in their portfolios to gold through sovereign gold bonds.
The cash pile within smallcap mutual fund (MF) schemes has grown over the past few months amid a relentless rally in stocks in this space. While fund managers usually don't make cash calls, incessant inflows and valuation discomfort have forced their hand. At the end of January, the top 10 schemes had over Rs 12,160 crore in cash, compared to Rs 8,700 crore in August 2023.
If you spread your investments and get exposure to many asset classes, then that is called diversification. Asset allocation is the process of allocating your money to different investments. And they offer tremendous advantages, says Rishi Piparaiya.
Dalal Street had a roller coaster ride in 2024 from shattering record after record to facing heavy correction off-late but equity markets still rewarded investors with positive returns, driven by a surge in domestic fund flows and a resilient macro landscape. The first half of the year saw robust corporate earnings, a surge in domestic flows, and a resilient macro landscape, driving the Nifty to an all-time high of 26,277.35 in September 2024, according to Motilal Oswal Wealth Management.
'If you invest in a rush at the last moment, you could compromise on selecting the best tax-saving options.'
Differences between the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party over portfolio allocation blew over on Wednesday with Anant Geete deciding to take charge as heavy industries minister after party chief Uddhav Thackeray held "satisfactory" talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the matter.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin's Cabinet, including him, would be 34-member strong and he has retained senior leaders like Duraimurugan and over a dozen shall be ministers for the first time.
'In phases when smaller stocks do well, an equal-weight index performs better than its market cap-weighted peer.'
In a falling market, the value of your investment keeps going down. However, the reduction in value is purely a notional loss if you remain invested. When you redeem in a falling market, the notional loss becomes a permanent loss, explains Anamika Pareek.
All investors should ideally have a 10 to 15 per cent allocation to gold. Whether they invest in gold ETFs or SGBs should depend on their investment horizon.
After a robust 2023, foreign investors significantly scaled back their investments in Indian equities in 2024, with net inflows amounting to over Rs 5,000 crore, as elevated domestic valuations, coupled with geopolitical uncertainties prompted investors to adopt a more cautious stance. Looking ahead to 2025, FPI flows into Indian equities could see a recovery, supported by a cyclical upswing in corporate earnings, particularly in domestic-oriented sectors like capital goods, manufacturing, and infrastructure, Vinit Bolinjkar, head of research, Ventura Securities, said.
'Young investors with limited funds should ensure that investing in NPS does not crowd out their other, more liquid, investments.'
The exodus of foreign investments from Indian equity markets continued unabated, with FPIs pulling out nearly Rs 20,000 crore in the last five trading sessions on higher valuations of domestic stocks and shifting their allocation to China. As a result, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have turned net sellers in the equity market, with total outflows reaching Rs 13,401 crore for 2024 so far. Going ahead, the FPI selling trend is likely to continue in the near term till data indicate the piossibility of a trend reversal.
An allocation to ESG theme funds can bring down the overall risk of an equity portfolio. Investors with long-term financial goals, such as retirement, should not ignore sustainable investing.
Reliance Industries Ltd, India's most valuable company, is back on a growth path after six months of challenges as it posted better than expected earnings in the December quarter, brokerages said.
Arrested Tamil Nadu Minister V Senthil Balaji has resigned from the council of ministers, Raj Bhavan said on Tuesday.
Follow this 15 x 15 x 15 rule to become a crorepati without taking big risks. Ramalingam Kalirajan explains how
Omkeshwar Singh, Head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
Those who cannot bear significant downturns (as much as 40 per cent) or have a short horizon should exit entirely.
Equity mutual funds witnessed an inflow of Rs 35,943 crore in November, marking a drop of 14 per cent on a month-on-month basis, amid heightened volatility in stock markets driven by various macroeconomic factors, geopolitical events and US election results. Despite this, it marked the 45th consecutive month of net inflows into equity-oriented funds, reflecting the growing popularity of mutual funds among investors, according to data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) released on Tuesday.
'...you evaluate three key factors before committing your money.'
rediffGURU Ulhas Joshi answers your personal finance and mutual fund queries
Balanced advantage funds have the potential to earn superior risk-adjusted returns for the investor and offer a smoother investment journey.
Asset allocation - the way you divide your capital among different investment options - accounts for more than 90 per cent of your portfolio's overall return. Which is why it's so very important to get the asset allocation right in your investment portfolio.
If you work for 30 years, a two per cent difference in pension returns can reduce your final retirement nest egg by 40 per cent. The Rs 9-trillion National Pension System (NPS) seems to be delivering incrementally higher returns than the twice-as-large Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), shows a Business Standard analysis of data over the last seven years for the two retirement fund bodies. An investor who put in Rs 100 in retirement savings seven years ago would have seen her NPS nest egg grow to Rs 182 by 2023, according to the analysis based on the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority's recently released Handbook of National Pension System Statistics 2023.
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.
'Auto, pharma, and industrials have delivered well in the recent quarter, while businesses like quick-service restaurants, consumer staples, and durables have underperformed in volume growth.'
While selecting a smallcap scheme, go with one that has a good track record and a stable fund manager.
