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Fair trade regulator CCI said it has approved LIC Mutual Fund's acquisition of IDBI Mutual Fund. Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is the sponsor of LIC Mutual Fund (LIC MF) and the parent entity of LIC AMC and LIC TC.

A higher interest scenario is considered bad for debt mutual funds, especially long-term debt funds. That is why debt fund managers and mutual fund advisors have been asking conservative investors to stick to short duration debt funds to ride the volatile phase in the money market.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point, but indicated it was on the verge of pausing further increases in borrowing costs amid recent turmoil in financial markets spurred by the collapse of two U.S. banks.

Earnings growth and variability of earnings remains the key risks to markets.

RC Bhargava, in a fireside chat with Ravi Krishnan, Deputy Editor, Moneycontrol, said: “If you want to be a manufacturing giant, we must listen to the Prime Minister and ensure that manufacturing is inclusive... "

The major challenge for equities in FY24 remains interest rate path volatility. Implied Fed funds rate and hike probabilities have been swinging almost every day at an unprecedented quantum. Stocks tend to underperform during such an uncertain environment

Find out what the April 2023 issue of Mutual Fund Insight covers

Although valuations in midcaps and smallcaps have also corrected, whenever there is some macroeconomic advent, these segments tend to feel the pinch more than largecaps, says Harsha Upadhyaya, CIO-Equity, Kotak AMC

If you are confused about all the talk about more rate hikes or pause in hikes in the coming months, you should consider investing in dynamic bond funds. These schemes have the freedom to invest across securities and maturities depending on the outlook of the fund manager. So, when the rates go up, the fund manager might bet on short term securities as a rate hike will marginally impact them. When rates start falling, he will invest in long-term instruments to make money.

Fixed income investors with an appetite for risk can consider adding duration to their portfolios and lock in to the high yields. Fund managers believe yields are close to their peak as the Fed is in the last stage of rate tightening and the risks to yields moving higher have greatly diminished making the risk-reward favourable for long-term investors to add long duration funds with a 4-5 year maturity to their portfolios.

Regulatory guidelines require investors to have a nominee for all their mutual fund folios, or inform the fund house they do not wish to have one by March 31. Else, their folios will be frozen for debits.

Not long ago, most investors, especially new ones, were investing in small cap mutual funds. However, most investors have been staying away from the small cap category in the last one and a half years. No wonder, considering the category has offered around 2.19% returns in the last one year. The category also faced a lot of volatility in the interim. However, making investment decisions based on the prevailing or short-term conditions could be a grave mistake. Consider for example: eight small c ..

Optimists had hoped that global dislocations would not impact Indian banks, but data shows otherwise. Banking funds have delivered the worst returns among all the mutual fund categories at -9.13 percent since the start of the year.

The repercussions of the slowdown in Nasdaq companies are yet to come through in earnings downgrades, and the prospects of Indian companies may be dented, says Alok Jain.

If you are looking for relatively safer debt funds to invest in 2023, you should check out banking & PSU debt funds. These schemes have the mandate to invest at least 80% of their corpus in debt investments of banks, public sector undertakings, and public financial institutions.