wealthforumtv

PGIM India Mutual Fund on Friday launched its maiden balanced advantage fund from which it expects to garner at least Rs 500 crore.

Over the past few years, mutual funds have become one of the most favoured investment vehicles in India. A mutual fund is a professionally managed investment fund that pools money from many investors and invests in a gamut of securities. To invest in mutual funds, investors have two alternatives available – direct plans and regular plans. There are just two plans for the same scheme and fund manager also remains the same.

f investors don’t beat short-term volatility, long-term wealth generation will be a challenge, says Ajit Menon, chief executive officer, PGIM India Mutual Fund which recently launched their PGIM India Balanced Advantage Fund. In an interview with Urvashi Valecha, he explains what kind of returns should investors expect from equities. Edited excerpts:

A new AMC, TRUST Mutual Fund, has entered the fund industry. While the TRUST Group has been into the financial industry for long, it is now channelising its distribution and fund-management capabilities into the mutual fund domain to reach out to retail investors. Joining the 40-player mutual fund industry, this 41st player recently unveiled its maiden offering - Banking & PSU Debt Fund. As the AMC enters the industry, we caught up with its CEO, Sandeep Bagla, to discuss various issues, ranging from their road map ahead in terms of product launches to the USP of the new fund and more.

Nippon India Mutual Fund has changed the benchmark of Nippon India Multi Cap Fund from S&P BSE 500 TRI to Nifty 500 Multicap 50:25:25 Total Return Index with effect from January 29, 2021.

"Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security." This quote by John Allen Paulos, a professor of mathematics at Temple University of the US, aptly sums up the market in 2020 and how investors should read it. In March, we saw one of the steepest falls in the markets worldwide.

While investing does not follow a one-size-fits-all approach, it is a different ballgame when you are in your 50s. This is because you need to maintain a fine balance between your current and upcoming needs, at this delicate stage of your life and for post-retirement.

The assets under management (AUM) linked to the systematic investment plan (SIP) rose to a record high of Rs 4 lakh crore in December due to capital appreciation and a sharp bounce back in SIP inflows. It increased at a faster rate of 25.5% in 2020 compared with the 16.8% growth in the total AUM of the mutual funds, according to the data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI).

Most of the passively-managed schemes track the Nifty 50 and closely mimic the index’s performance. These funds make allocations to the Nifty 50 stocks, exactly as per their weights in the Nifty. For example, if a stock has delivered significant gains, its weight in Nifty will surge. The index fund or an exchange traded fund tracking the Nifty will also increase its allocation to the stock to reflect the increased weightage.

Fund management has often been held in much higher esteem than it really deserves. This is especially true of large-cap core equity funds. Most of these funds are ‘closet index funds’ – i.e., the portfolio weights for stocks are fairly close to those of the benchmark. And yet, in recent years, they have regularly underperformed their respective benchmarks, especially in the large-cap space. This begs the obvious question – is it possible for an investor to side-step equity mutual funds entirely and take charge of his/her investments directly? The short answer is, yes!

With equity markets soaring and the gold rally pausing for breath, investors are debating whether they to maintain their allocations to gold or exit the asset class.

Power Finance Corporation Limited, is one of the leading financial institutions in India, focused on the power sector will open its Rs 5,000 crore public issue of secured, redeemable Non-Convertible Debentures on January 15, 2021. The NCDs are of face value of Rs 1,000 each. The Tranche I Issue is scheduled to close on January 29, 2021 with an option of early closure or extension.

The month of December saw around Rs 7,500 crore of inflows in 9 different equity oriented NFOs during the month. At the same time, the outflow from overall equities was a whopping Rs 36,000 crore. The inclination towards IPOs too continues as we see oversubscription of most of the IPOs – Mrs. Bectors Food IPO was oversubscribed almost 200 times. This clearly shows that investors continue to remain keen to invest in equities despite markets being at all-time highs.

After Mutual Funds, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are the most innovative and popular investment options in India. Harsh Jain, Co-founder and COO, Groww says, “While the ETF market in India is still in its nascent stages, 2020 was a volatile year for most ETFs too. Based on the YTD figures, Gold ETFs performed better in 2020 as compared with equity or currency-based ETFs.”

Manish is 33 years old. He works with an IT company and gets Rs 8 lakh per annum. He got to know about the new tax slabs in the Budget announcement. He now wants to know whether the new tax slabs would be more beneficial to him or if he should continue with the existing taxation regime.