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In investing, as long as there is one investor willing to buy without looking at price or valuation, the price can go higher and higher. We saw that during the Harshad Mehta bull run, says the Managing Director of Kotak AMC.

Most of the efficient players in the cement industry tend to have low debt on their balance sheets, says Dongre, a fund manager with UTI Asset Management.

Predicting the direction of markets — which has been always laced with uncertainty — has become even more difficult. Unforeseeable events play a critical role, too, in determining where the markets might be headed. A case in point is the outbreak of the coronavirus. Keeping in mind this factor, the presence of more than one asset class in one’s portfolio should serve well in the long term for an investor.

Mutual funds invested in the debt of Vodafone Idea, the telco that must pay the government Rs 53,000 crore in dues, has begun segregating those investments into a separate portfolio after the company’s creditworthiness was downgraded in light of the stressed finances. UTI Mutual Fund and Nippon India MF Monday decided to create a segregated portfolio, following in the footsteps of Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund, which had already segregated the investments last month.

Interest rates globally cannot go negative any further while gold prices cannot rise farther away, said Sunil Subramaniam, MD & CEO at Sundaram Mutual Fund. Equities will be the natural recipient of global liquidity, he said.

Over the past year, Kotak Mutual Fund's equity schemes have been among the best performers in their respective categories. Kotak Standard Multicap Fund, which manages a mammoth Rs 29,000 crore of assets, highlights how the fund house has won investor trust. We speak to Harsha Upadhyaya, CIO - Equity, Kotak Mutual Fund, about the reasons for his funds' success. He also talks about the current valuations of Indian equities, recovery in mid and small caps, and his favourite sectors and themes.

I do not think any prudent investor should completely ignore valuations but at the same time, we are living in a period where high quality comes with relatively expensive valuations, says Manishi Raychaudhuri, Head of Equity Research, Asia-Pacific, BNP Paribas in an interview with ETNOW.

Edelweiss Asset Management Limited, a group company of Edelweiss, announced the launch of a New Fund Offer of the Edelweiss US Technology Equity Fund of Fund (FOF). The NFO will open on February 14, and close for subscription on February 28. It will re-open for continuous sale and repurchase on or before March 16. According to the fund house, the fund is designed with the objective of providing access to emerging technologies which are in early stages of adoption based in US.

India’s mutual funds leaderboard now has a new occupant at the highest rung: SBI Mutual Fund. It has nudged ahead of HDFC Asset Management in January 2020, with total assets under management (AUM) of Rs 3.82 lakh crore. HDFC AMC is now the second biggest, with Rs 3.79 lakh crore of AUM. ICICI Prudential AMC is the third largest, with AUM of Rs 3.68 lakh crore.

Sunil Subramaniam, MD & CEO of Sundaram Mutual Fund sees revival of discretionary consumption story as a dominant market theme over next one year on the back of recovery in rural India. Equity-linked savings schemes (ELSS) of fund houses will gradually lose their charm and attractiveness as tax incentives will be completely withdrawn going ahead, he says.

SBI Mutual Fund proposes to change the name of SBI Magnum Taxgain Fund to SBI Long Term Equity Fund with effect from February 17, 2020.

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund has decided to change the Benchmark of ICICI Prudential Value Discovery Fund, from S&P BSE 500 Index to Nifty 500 Value 50 Index with effect from February 17, 2020.

Value investing has become more relevant in today’s market than a few years ago. A select few stocks in the Nifty 50 index have been driving the markets. It seems that for a sustained rally the market is now inordinately dependent on select top 10 stocks by weightage in the Nifty 50 index. This has made the Nifty quite expensive compared to its historical valuation. Currently, the Nifty 50 index is trading at a price to earnings multiple of 26.89.

Sundaram Mutual has launched a dynamic asset allocation scheme called Sundaram Balanced Advantage Fund. The New Fund Offer (NFO) of the scheme would open for subscription on February 14 and close on February 28. The scheme reopens for ongoing subscription and redemption from March 12. Sunil Subramaniam, Managing Director, Sundaram Mutual, said, “Equity, as an asset class is the best place to build wealth for your financial goals. But equity comes with volatility.

Kotak Mutual Fund has decided to merge three of its schemes. Kotak US Equity Fund (KUEF) and Kotak World Gold (KWG) will be clubbed with the Kotak Global Emerging Market (KGEM) fund. The merger will be effective from February 26. Given that the merger will result in a fund that differs in its objectives from those of the individual schemes, investors may need to take stock and make changes to their portfolios.