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What are you doing to make sure that your investors remain safe in this kind of carnage? Are you buying the fear or are you simply protecting whatever capital or stocks you have? We are buying a fair amount of stocks. I am quite positive that while this virus is a bit of an uncertain thing, from a time-frame perspective, it is a reasonable assumption that between six and 12 months, we will be back to normal.

The countrywide lockdown put in place to check the spread of Covid-19 has prompted SBI Mutual Fund to suspend fresh flows into its gold fund with effect from Tuesday. Furthermore, all existing SIPs in the fund will come to a halt after April 6. SBI Mutual is the first fund house to have discontinued purchase in SBI Gold Fund, which has assets of ?434 crore. As of now, investors can continue to buy gold funds from other fund houses that offer the product.

Given the pessimism gripping the markets owing to the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic and the consequent national lockdown, a sensible equity strategy is to invest in schemes that have a high exposure to blue chips or large-cap companies. Their inherent advantages such as a strong balance sheet, brand power and market share help them tide over these conditions better than mid- and small-cap companies, especially when the demand environment is weak.

Are we in a prolonged bear market for equities, or do you think we are nearing the end of the tunnel? There are two ways to really crunch this. One is, where are we in terms of valuations? The answer to that when we look at multiple indicators is that it has clearly dropped into attractive territory. But if I were to look at some of the lows that we have seen for the valuations seen in 2008 or 2003, then it is not very clear to me if we have gone close to that yet.

SBI Mutual Fund has reopened its small cap scheme - SBI Small Cap Fund - for lumpsum investment after a gap of over four years. The fund hosue had stopped lumpsum investments in October 30, 2015, to stop huge inflows into the scheme at a time of high valuations in the small cap space. The fund house will allow lumpsum investments in the scheme from today. The fund house has put a limit of Rs 1,000 crore to the lumpsum inflows.

DSP Mutual Fund has announced that the fund house would be revoking the temporary suspension of lumpsum investments in DSP Small Cap Fund with effect from April 1, 2020. From thereon, all lumpsum investments/subscriptions including all systematic investments in units of the Scheme shall be accepted, the fund house said in a press release.

As I expect, since the bulk of the fall is behind us, one should start investing and then watch out for current circumstances. If the situation with respect to the virus does not escalate in India, then obviously people should invest sooner and more, Shreyash Devalkar, Senior Fund Manager, Axis AMC said in an exclusive interview to Moneycontrol's Sunil Shankar Matkar.

Extraordinary times need extraordinary response. Would you agree with me? I agree with you 100%. These are tough times. These are extraordinary times and we must respond extraordinarily. What could be that extraordinary, out-of-the-box idea because the US Senate has passed a package which could be classified as “we will do whatever it takes” kind of package. Do you think on the economy front something like that needs to come? This is not the time to skimp?< ..

As bears continue to beat down stocks on the Indian stock markets, several blue chip stocks are trading close to their 52-week lows. The current attractive valuation might be a once in a lifetime opportunity to invest in these stocks for long-term investors, said Nilesh Shah, Managing Director, Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company. In an interview with CNBC TV18, Shah said, “These are times when one has to be disciplined and remain a long-term investor, this might be a once in a lifetime opportunity.” As S&P BSE Sensex continues to hob-nob between gains and losses, most of the top 5 companies have hit their 52-week lows in the recent weeks.

L&T Mutual Fund has launched two index funds-the Nifty 50 index and the Nifty Next 50 index funds. The new fund offer will open on Tuesday and closes on March 31. These open-ended index funds seek to replicate the performance of the Nifty 50 index and Nifty Next 50 index and operate mostly in the large cap space.

It is great when people say do not panic, markets will come back, this is temporary. The problem is one has to deal with the short term, something which is changing your asset allocation, your wealth, your portfolio and your net worth on a daily basis. When panic sets in, then a lot of selling happens and people do not look at valuations. They are not thinking long term, they are looking at the near term. The bottoms in the markets are created when there is a lot of uncertain and blood on the Street and that is what you have seen today. Over the last 20 days, we have seen all the blue chips being hammered down 30-35% and more.

In times when estimates and assumptions are being questioned or proven wrong consistently due to unforeseen factors, it makes sense to stick with equity schemes that have been through long market cycles. Schemes which have been in existence for more than 15 years is a good criterion. Secondly and more importantly, such schemes must have delivered consistently better returns than their peers in the category.

The ED and CIO of SBI Mutual Fund says Indian markets need a sharp rate cut, substantially higher liquidity -- even in the AAA space, even in the commercial paper space, even in the certificate of deposit space. RBI and the government need to think unconventionally and creatively how we support the markets -- can even defer the financial year itself from March 31 to something like April 30.

Some of the government policies need to be rethought to ensure that domestic investors are in a position to take advantage of the indiscriminate selling that we are seeing from global investors, says the CIO of SBI Mutual Fund.

“We are now finding some businesses run by very competent managements that are now available at great franchise values from a longer-term perspective. We are adding those to our portfolios to benefit in the long run. So one has to follow a bottom-up approach about building the right portfolio,” Chockalingam Narayanan, Head – Equities at BNP Paribas Mutual Fund said in an interview to Moneycontrol’s Sunil Shankar Matkar. edited excerpts: