Comparitive Study of Mutual Funds in India
Comparitive Study of Mutual Funds in India
Comparitive Study of Mutual Funds in India
PROJECT ON
BACHELOR OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES SEMESTER V (2009-10) V.E.S. COLLEGE OF ARTS, SCIENCE & COMMERCE, SINDHI SOCIETY, CHEMBUR, MUMBAI 400071.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Before we get into thick of things, I would like to add a few words of appreciation for the people who have been a part of this project right from its inception. The writing of this project has been one of the significant academic challenges I have faced and without the support, patience, and guidance of the people involved, this task would not have been completed. It is to them I owe my deepest gratitude. It gives me Immense pleasure in presenting this project report on "COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MUTUAL FUNDS IN INDIA". It has been my privilege to have a team of project guide who have assisted me from the commencement of this project. The success of this project is a result of sheer hard work, and determination put in by me with the help of my project guide. I hereby take this opportunity to add a special note of thanks for Mrs. MINAL GANDHI, who undertook to act as my mentor despite her many other academic and professional commitments. Her wisdom, knowledge, and commitment to the highest standards inspired and motivated me. Without her insight, support, and energy, this project wouldn't have kick-started and neither would have reached fruitfulness. I also feel heartiest sense of obligation to my library staff members & seniors, who helped me in collection of data & resource material & also in its processing as well as in drafting manuscript. The project is dedicated to all those people, who helped me while doing this project.
OBJECTIVE:
To give a brief idea about the benefits available from Mutual Fund investment. To give an idea of the types of schemes available. To discuss about the market trends of Mutual Fund investment. To study some of the mutual fund schemes. To study some mutual fund companies and their funds. Observe the fund management process of mutual funds. Explore the recent developments in the mutual funds in India. To give an idea about the regulations of mutual funds.
LIMITATIONS The lack of information sources for the analysis part. Though I tried to collect some primary data but they were too inadequate for the purposes of the study. Time and money are critical factors limiting this study. The data provided by the prospects may not be 100% correct as they too have their limitations. The study is limited to selected mutual fund schemes.
EXECUTIVE SUMMERY
A mutual fund is a scheme in which several people invest their money for a common financial cause. The collected money invests in the capital market and the money, which they earned, is divided based on the number of units, which they hold. The mutual fund industry started in India in a small way with the UTI Act creating what was effectively a small savings division within the RBI. Over a period of 25 years this grew fairly successfully and gave investors a good return, and therefore in 1989, as the next logical step, public sector banks and financial institutions were allowed to float mutual funds and their success emboldened the government to allow the private sector to foray into this area. The advantages of mutual fund are professional management, diversification, economies of scale, simplicity, and liquidity. The disadvantages of mutual fund are high costs, over-diversification, possible tax consequences, and the inability of management to guarantee a superior return. The biggest problems with mutual funds are their costs and fees it include Purchase fee, Redemption fee, Exchange fee, Management fee, Account fee & Transaction Costs. There are some loads which add to the cost of mutual fund. Load is a type of commission depending on the type of funds. Mutual funds are easy to buy and sell. You can either buy them directly from the fund company or through a third party. Before investing in any funds one should consider some factor like objective, risk, Fund Managers and scheme track record, Cost factor etc. There are many, many types of mutual funds. You can classify funds based Structure (open-ended & close-ended), Nature (equity, debt, balanced), Investment objective (growth, income, money market) etc. A code of conduct and registration structure for mutual fund intermediaries, which were subsequently mandated by SEBI. In addition, this year AMFI was involved in a number of developments and enhancements to the regulatory framework.
The most important trend in the mutual fund industry is the aggressive expansion of the foreign owned mutual fund companies and the decline of the companies floated by nationalized banks and smaller private sector players. Reliance Mutual Fund, UTI Mutual Fund, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, HDFC Mutual Fund and Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund are the top five mutual fund company in India. Reliance mutual funding is considered to be most reliable mutual funds in India. People want to invest in this institution because they know that this institution will never dissatisfy them at any cost. You should always keep this into your mind that if particular mutual funding scheme is on larger scale then next time, you might not get the same results so being a careful investor you should take your major step diligently otherwise you will be unable to obtain the high returns.
INDEX
SRNO. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. TOPICS INTRODUCTION OF MUTUAL FUND WORKING OF MUTUAL FUND MUTUAL FUND IN INDIA RELIANCE MUTUAL FUND vs. UTI MUTUAL FUND MUTUAL FUND vs. OTHER INVESTMENT FUTURE PROSPECT OF MUTUAL FUNDS IN INDIA MF JARGON CONCLUSION BIBLOGRAPHY PAGE NO 01 25 33 37 60 67 68 69 70
Chapter: 1
INTRODUCTION OF MUTUAL FUND
There are a lot of investment avenues available today in the financial market for an investor with an investable surplus. He can invest in Bank Deposits, Corporate Debentures, and Bonds where there is low risk but low return. He may invest in Stock of companies where the risk is high and the returns are also proportionately high. The recent trends in the Stock Market have shown that an average retail investor always lost with periodic bearish tends. People began opting for portfolio managers with expertise in stock markets who would invest on their behalf. Thus we had wealth management services provided by many institutions. However they proved too costly for a small investor. These investors have found a good shelter with the mutual funds.
Mutual Funds are trusts, which accept savings from investors and invest the same in diversified financial instruments in terms of objectives set out in the trusts deed with the view to reduce the risk and maximize the income and capital appreciation for distribution for the members. A Mutual Fund is a corporation and the fund managers interest is to professionally manage the funds provided by the investors and provide a return on them after deducting reasonable management fees. The objective sought to be achieved by Mutual Fund is to provide an opportunity for lower income groups to acquire without much difficulty financial assets. They cater mainly to the needs of the individual investor whose means are small and to manage investors portfolio in a manner that provides a regular income, growth, safety, liquidity and diversification opportunities.
DEFINITION:
Mutual funds are collective savings and investment vehicles where savings of small (or sometimes big) investors are pooled together to invest for their mutual benefit and returns distributed proportionately. A mutual fund is an investment that pools your money with the money of an unlimited number of other investors. In return, you and the other investors each own shares of the fund. The fund's assets are invested according to an investment objective into the fund's portfolio of investments. Aggressive growth funds seek long-term capital growth by investing primarily in stocks of fast-growing smaller companies or market segments. Aggressive growth funds are also called capital appreciation funds.
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Ventur e Capita l
Equi ty
Mutu al Funds
LOWER RISK HIGIER RETURNS
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The 1993 SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual Fund Regulations in 1996. The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations 1996. The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing, with many foreign mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and acquisitions. As at the end of January 2003, there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs. 1,21,805 crores. The Unit Trust of India with Rs.44,541 crores of assets under management was way ahead of other mutual funds.
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The graph indicates the growth of assets under management over the years. GROWTH IN ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT
(Source: www.amfiindia.com)
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1. Portfolio Diversification:
Each investor in the fund is a part owner of all the funds assets, thus enabling him to hold a diversified investment portfolio even with a small amount of investment that would otherwise require big capital.
2. Professional Management:
Even if an investor has a big amount of capital available to him, he benefits from the professional management skills brought in by the fund in the management of the investors portfolio. The investment management skills, along with the needed research into available investment options, ensure a much better return than what an investor can manage on his own. Few investors have the skill and resources of their own to succeed in todays fast moving, global and sophisticated markets.
3. Reduction/Diversification Of Risk:
When an investor invests directly, all the risk of potential loss is his own, whether he places a deposit with a company or a bank, or he buys a share or debenture on his own or in any other from. While investing in the pool of funds with investors, the potential losses are also shared with other investors. The risk reduction is one of the most important benefits of a collective investment vehicle like the mutual fund.
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5. Liquidity:
Often, investors hold shares or bonds they cannot directly, easily and quickly sell. When they invest in the units of a fund, they can generally cash their investments any time, by selling their units to the fund if open-ended, or selling them in the market if the fund is close-end. Liquidity of investment is clearly a big benefit.
Tax Benefits:
Any income distributed after March 31, 2002 will be subject to tax in the assessment of
all Unit holders. However, as a measure of concession to Unit holders of open-ended equityoriented funds, income distributions for the year ending March 31, 2003, will be taxed at a concessional rate of 10.5%. In case of Individuals and Hindu Undivided Families a deduction upto Rs. 9,000 from the Total Income will be admissible in respect of income from investments specified in Section 80L, including income from Units of the Mutual Fund. Units of the schemes are not subject to Wealth-Tax and Gift-Tax.
8. Choice of Schemes:
Mutual Funds offer a family of schemes to suit your varying needs over a lifetime.
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9. Well Regulated:
All Mutual Funds are registered with SEBI and they function within the provisions of strict regulations designed to protect the interests of investors. The operations of Mutual Funds are regularly monitored by SEBI. 10. Transparency: You get regular information on the value of your investment in addition to disclosure on the specific investments made by your scheme, the proportion invested in each class of assets and the fund manager's investment strategy and outlook.
2. No Tailor-Made Portfolio:
Investors who invest on their own can build their own portfolios of shares and bonds and other securities. Investing through fund means he delegates this decision to the fund managers. The very-high-net-worth individuals or large corporate investors may find this to be a constraint in achieving their objectives. However, most mutual fund managers help investors overcome this constraint by offering families of funds- a large number of different schemes- within their own management company. An investor can choose from different investment plans and constructs a portfolio to his choice.
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5. No Control:
Unlike picking your own individual stocks, a mutual fund puts you in the passenger seat of somebody else's car
6. Dilution:
Mutual funds generally have such small holdings of so many different stocks that insanely great performance by a fund's top holdings still doesn't make much of a difference in a mutual fund's total performance.
7. Buried Costs:
Many mutual funds specialize in burying their costs and in hiring salesmen who do not make those costs clear to their clients.
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A).
BY STRUCTURE
3. Interval Schemes:
Interval Schemes are that scheme, which combines the features of open-ended and closeended schemes. The units may be traded on the stock exchange or may be open for sale or redemption during pre-determined intervals at NAV related prices.
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B).
BY NATURE
These funds invest a maximum part of their corpus into equities holdings. The structure
1. Equity Fund:
of the fund may vary different for different schemes and the fund managers outlook on different stocks. The Equity Funds are sub-classified depending upon their investment objective, as follows:
Diversified Equity Funds Mid-Cap Funds Sector Specific Funds Tax Savings Funds (ELSS) Equity investments are meant for a longer time horizon, thus Equity funds rank high on
2. Debt Funds:
The objective of these Funds is to invest in debt papers. Government authorities, private companies, banks and financial institutions are some of the major issuers of debt papers. By investing in debt instruments, these funds ensure low risk and provide stable income to the investors. Debt funds are further classified as:
Gilt Funds: Invest their corpus in securities issued by Government, popularly known as Government of India debt papers. These Funds carry zero Default risk but are associated with Interest Rate risk. These schemes are safer as they invest in papers backed by Government.
Income Funds: Invest a major portion into various debt instruments such as bonds, corporate debentures and Government securities.
MIPs: Invests maximum of their total corpus in debt instruments while they take minimum exposure in equities. It gets benefit of both equity and debt market. These scheme ranks slightly high on the risk-return matrix when compared with other debt schemes.
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Short Term Plans (STPs): Meant for investment horizon for three to six months. These funds primarily invest in short term papers like Certificate of Deposits (CDs) and Commercial Papers (CPs). Some portion of the corpus is also invested in corporate debentures.
Liquid Funds: Also known as Money Market Schemes, These funds provides easy liquidity and preservation of capital. These schemes invest in short-term instruments like Treasury Bills, inter-bank call money market, CPs and CDs. These funds are meant for short-term cash management of corporate houses and are meant for an investment horizon of 1day to 3 months. These schemes rank low on risk-return matrix and are considered to be the safest amongst all categories of mutual funds.
3. Balanced Funds:
As the name suggest they, are a mix of both equity and debt funds. They invest in both equities and fixed income securities, which are in line with pre-defined investment objective of the scheme. These schemes aim to provide investors with the best of both the worlds. Equity part provides growth and the debt part provides stability in returns. Further the mutual funds can be broadly classified on the basis of investment parameter viz, Each category of funds is backed by an investment philosophy, which is pre-defined in the objectives of the fund. The investor can align his own investment needs with the funds objective and invest accordingly.
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C).
BY INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE:
Growth Schemes are also known as equity schemes. The aim of these schemes is to
Growth Schemes:
provide capital appreciation over medium to long term. These schemes normally invest a major part of their fund in equities and are willing to bear short-term decline in value for possible future appreciation.
Income Schemes:
Income Schemes are also known as debt schemes. The aim of these schemes is to provide regular and steady income to investors. These schemes generally invest in fixed income securities such as bonds and corporate debentures. Capital appreciation in such schemes may be limited.
Balanced Schemes:
Balanced Schemes aim to provide both growth and income by periodically distributing a part of the income and capital gains they earn. These schemes invest in both shares and fixed income securities, in the proportion indicated in their offer documents (normally 50:50).
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Index Schemes:
Index schemes attempt to replicate the performance of a particular index such as the BSE Sensex or the NSE 50. The portfolio of these schemes will consist of only those stocks that constitute the index. The percentage of each stock to the total holding will be identical to the stocks index weightage. And hence, the returns from such schemes would be more or less equivalent to those of the Index.
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ii)
Redemption Fee:
It is another type of fee that some funds charge their shareholders when they sell or redeem shares. Unlike a deferred sales load, a redemption fee is paid to the fund (not to a broker) and is typically used to defray fund costs associated with a shareholder's redemption.
iii)
Exchange Fee:
Exchange fee that some funds impose on shareholders if they exchange (transfer) to another fund within the same fund group or "family of funds."
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ii)
Account Fee:
Account fees are fees that some funds separately impose on investors in connection with the maintenance of their accounts. For example, some funds impose an account maintenance fee on accounts whose value is less than a certain dollar amount.
LOADS
Definition of a load Load funds exhibit a "Sales Load" with a percentage charge levied on purchase or sale of shares. A load is a type of Commission (remuneration). Depending on the type of load a mutual fund exhibits, charges may be incurred at time of purchase, time of sale, or a mix of both. The different types of loads are outlined below.
Front-end load:
Also known as Sales Charge, this is a fee paid when shares are purchased. Also known as a "front-end load," this fee typically goes to the brokers that sell the fund's shares. Front-end loads reduce the amount of your investment. For example, let's say you have Rs.10,000 and want to invest it in a mutual fund with a 5% front-end load. The Rs.500 sales load you must pay comes off the top, and the remaining Rs.9500 will be invested in the fund. According to NASD rules, a front-end load cannot be higher than 8.5% of your investment.
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Back-end load:
Also known as Deferred Sales Charge, this is a fee paid when shares are sold. Also known as a "back-end load," this fee typically goes to the brokers that sell the fund's shares. The amount of this type of load will depend on how long the investor holds his or her shares and typically decreases to zero if the investor holds his or her shares long enough.
No-load Fund:
As the name implies, this means that the fund does not charge any type of sales load. But, as outlined above, not every type of shareholder fee is a "sales load." A no-load fund may charge fees that are not sales loads, such as purchase fees, redemption fees, exchange fees, and account fees.
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Cost factor:
Though the AMC fee is regulated, you should look at the expense ratio of the fund before investing. This is because the money is deducted from your investments. A higher entry load or exit load also will eat into your returns. A higher expense ratio can be justified only by superlative returns. It is very crucial in a debt fund, as it will devour a few percentages from your modest returns.
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Also, Morningstar rates mutual funds. Each year end, many financial publications list the year's best performing mutual funds. Naturally, very eager investors will rush out to purchase shares of last year's top performers. That's a big mistake. Remember, changing market conditions make it rare that last year's top performer repeats that ranking for the current year. Mutual fund investors would be well advised to consider the fund prospectus, the fund manager, and the current market conditions. Never rely on last year's top performers.
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2. Market Risk:
Sometimes prices and yields of all securities rise and fall. Broad outside influences affecting the market in general lead to this. This is true, may it be big corporations or smaller mid-sized companies. This is known as Market Risk. A Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) that works on the concept of Rupee Cost Averaging (RCA) might help mitigate this risk.
3. Credit Risk:
The debt servicing ability (may it be interest payments or repayment of principal) of a company through its cashflows determines the Credit Risk faced by you. This credit risk is measured by independent rating agencies like CRISIL who rate companies and their paper. A AAA rating is considered the safest whereas a D rating is considered poor credit quality. A well-diversified portfolio might help mitigate this risk.
4. Inflation Risk:
Things you hear people talk about: "Rs. 100 today is worth more than Rs. 100 tomorrow." "Remember the time when a bus ride costed 50 paise?" "Mehangai Ka Jamana Hai." The root cause, Inflation. Inflation is the loss of purchasing power over time. A lot of times people make conservative investment decisions to protect their capital but end up with a sum of money that can buy less than what the principal could at the time of the investment. This happens
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when inflation grows faster than the return on your investment. A well-diversified portfolio with some investment in equities might help mitigate this risk.
7. Liquidity Risk:
Liquidity risk arises when it becomes difficult to sell the securities that one has purchased. Liquidity Risk can be partly mitigated by diversification, staggering of maturities as well as internal risk controls that lean towards purchase of liquid securities.
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Chapter: 2
WORKING OF MUTUAL FUNDS
The mutual fund collects money directly or through brokers from investors. The money is invested in various instruments depending on the objective of the scheme. The income generated by selling securities or capital appreciation of these securities is passed on to the investors in proportion to their investment in the scheme. The investments are divided into units and the value of the units will be reflected in Net Asset Value or NAV of the unit. NAV is the market value of the assets of the scheme minus its liabilities. The per unit NAV is the net asset value of the scheme divided by the number of units outstanding on the valuation date. Mutual fund companies provide daily net asset value of their schemes to their investors. NAV is important, as it will determine the price at which you buy or redeem the units of a scheme. Depending on the load structure of the scheme, you have to pay entry or exit load.
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As per the SEBI regulations, for the person to qualify as a sponsor, he must contribute at least 40% of the net worth of the Asset Management Company and possesses a sound financial track record over 5 years prior to registration.
Trustees:
A Trust is created through a document called the Trust Deed that is executed by the fund sponsor in favour of the trustees. The Trust- the Mutual Fund may be managed by a board of trustees- a body of individuals, or a trust company- a corporate body. Most of the funds in India are managed by Boards of Trustees. While the boards of trustees are governed by the Indian Trusts Act, where the trusts are a corporate body, it would also require to comply with the Companies Act, 1956. The Board or the Trust company as an independent body, acts as a protector of the of the unit-holders interests. The Trustees do not directly manage the portfolio of securities. For this specialist function, the appoint an Asset Management Company. They ensure that the Fund is managed by ht AMC as per the defined objectives and in accordance with the trusts deeds and SEBI regulations.
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Bankers:
A Funds activities involve dealing in money on a continuous basis primarily with respect to buying and selling units, paying for investment made, receiving the proceeds from sale of the investments and discharging its obligations towards operating expenses. Thus the Funds banker
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plays an important role to determine quality of service that the fund gives in timely delivery of remittances etc.
Transfer Agents:
Transfer agents are responsible for issuing and redeeming units of the Mutual Fund and provide other related services such as preparation of transfer documents and updating investor records. A fund may choose to carry out its activity in-house and charge the scheme for the service at a competitive market rate. Where an outside Transfer agent is used, the fund investor will find the agent to be an important interface to deal with, since all of the investor services that a fund provides are going to be dependent on the transfer agent.
REGULATORY STRUCTURE OF MUTUAL FUNDS IN INDIA: The structure of mutual funds in India is guided by the SEBI. Regulations, 1996.These regulations make it mandatory for mutual fund to have three structures of sponsor trustee and asset Management Company. The sponsor of the mutual fund and appoints the trustees. The trustees are responsible to the investors in mutual fund and appoint the AMC for managing the investment portfolio. The AMC is the business face of the mutual fund, as it manages all the affairs of the mutual fund. The AMC and the mutual fund have to be registered with SEBI.
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SEBI REGULATIONS:
As far as mutual funds are concerned, SEBI formulates policies and regulates the mutual funds to protect the interest of the investors.
SEBI notified regulations for the mutual funds in 1993. Thereafter, mutual funds sponsored by private sector entities were allowed to enter the capital market.
The regulations were fully revised in 1996 and have been amended thereafter from time to time.
SEBI has also issued guidelines to the mutual funds from time to time to protect the interests of investors.
All mutual funds whether promoted by public sector or private sector entities including those promoted by foreign entities are governed by the same set of Regulations. The risks associated with the schemes launched by the mutual funds sponsored by these entities are of similar type. There is no distinction in regulatory requirements for these mutual funds and all are subject to monitoring and inspections by SEBI.
SEBI Regulations require that at least two thirds of the directors of trustee company or board of trustees must be independent i.e. they should not be associated with the sponsors.
Also, 50% of the directors of AMC must be independent. All mutual funds are required to be registered with SEBI before they launch any scheme.
Further SEBI Regualtions, inter-alia, stipulate that MFs cannot gurarnatee returns in any scheme and that each scheme is subject to 20 : 25 condition [I.e minimum 20 investors per scheme and one investor can hold more than 25% stake in the corpus in that one scheme].
Also SEBI has permitted MFs to launch schemes overseas subject various restrictions and also to launch schemes linked to Real Estate, Options and Futures, Commodities, etc.
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This mutual fund association of India maintains high professional and ethical standards in all areas of operation of the industry. It also recommends and promotes the top class business practices and code of conduct which is followed by members and related people engaged in the activities of mutual fund and asset management. The agencies who are by any means connected or involved in the field of capital markets and financial services also involved in this code of conduct of the association.
AMFI interacts with SEBI and works according to SEBIs guidelines in the mutual fund industry. Association of Mutual Fund of India do represent the Government of India, the Reserve Bank of India and other related bodies on matters relating to the Mutual Fund Industry. It develops a team of well qualified and trained Agent distributors. It implements a programme of training and certification for all intermediaries and other engaged in the mutual fund industry.
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AMFI undertakes all India awareness programme for investors in order to promote proper understanding of the concept and working of mutual funds. At last but not the least association of mutual fund of India also disseminate informations on Mutual Fund Industry and undertakes studies and research either directly or in association with other bodies.
AMFI Publications:
AMFI publish mainly two types of bulletin. One is on the monthly basis and the other is quarterly. These publications are of great support for the investors to get intimation of the knowhow of their parked money.
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Chapter: 3
MUTUAL FUNDS IN INDIA
In 1963, the day the concept of Mutual Fund took birth in India. Unit Trust of India invited investors or rather to those who believed in savings, to park their money in UTI Mutual Fund. For 30 years it goaled without a single second player. Though the 1988 year saw some new mutual fund companies, but UTI remained in a monopoly position. The performance of mutual funds in India in the initial phase was not even closer to satisfactory level. People rarely understood, and of course investing was out of question. But yes, some 24 million shareholders were accustomed with guaranteed high returns by the beginning of liberalization of the industry in 1992. This good record of UTI became marketing tool for new entrants. The expectations of investors touched the sky in profitability factor. However, people were miles away from the preparedness of risks factor after the liberalization. The net asset value (NAV) of mutual funds in India declined when stock prices started falling in the year 1992. Those days, the market regulations did not allow portfolio shifts into alternative investments. There was rather no choice apart from holding the cash or to further continue investing in shares. One more thing to be noted, since only closed-end funds were floated in the market, the investors disinvested by selling at a loss in the secondary market. The performance of mutual funds in India suffered qualitatively. The 1992 stock market scandal, the losses by disinvestments and of course the lack of transparent rules in the whereabouts rocked confidence among the investors. Partly owing to a relatively weak stock market performance, mutual funds have not yet recovered, with funds trading at an average discount of 1020 percent of their net asset value. The securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) came out with comprehensive regulation in 1993 which defined the structure of Mutual Fund and Asset Management Companies for the first time. The supervisory authority adopted a set of measures to create a transparent and competitive environment in mutual funds. Some of them were like relaxing investment
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restrictions into the market, introduction of open-ended funds, and paving the gateway for mutual funds to launch pension schemes. The measure was taken to make mutual funds the key instrument for long-term saving. The more the variety offered, the quantitative will be investors. Several private sectors Mutual Funds were launched in 1993 and 1994. The share of the private players has risen rapidly since then. Currently there are 34 Mutual Fund organizations in India managing 1,02,000 crores. At last to mention, as long as mutual fund companies are performing with lower risks and higher profitability within a short span of time, more and more people will be inclined to invest until and unless they are fully educated with the dos and donts of mutual funds. Mutual fund industry has seen a lot of changes in past few years with multinational companies coming into the country, bringing in their professional expertise in managing funds worldwide. In the past few months there has been a consolidation phase going on in the mutual fund industry in India. Now investors have a wide range of Schemes to choose from depending on their individual profiles.
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ABN AMRO Mutual Fund Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund HDFC Mutual Fund HSBC Mutual Fund ING Vysya Mutual Fund Prudential ICICI Mutual Fund State Bank of India Mutual Fund Tata Mutual Fund Unit Trust of India Mutual Fund Reliance Mutual Fund
Standard Chartered Mutual Fund Franklin Templeton India Mutual Fund Morgan Stanley Mutual Fund India Escorts Mutual Fund Alliance Capital Mutual Fund Benchmark Mutual Fund Canbank Mutual Fund Chola Mutual Fund LIC Mutual Fund GIC Mutual Fund
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For the first time in the history of Indian mutual fund industry, Unit Trust of India Mutual Fund has slipped from the first slot. Earlier, in May 2006, the Prudential ICICI Mutual Fund was ranked at the number one slot in terms of total assets. In the very next month, the UTIMF had regained its top position as the largest fund house in India. Now, according to the current pegging order and the data released by Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI), the Reliance Mutual Fund, with a January-end AUM of Rs 39,020 crore has become the largest mutual fund in India On the other hand, UTIMF, with an AUM of Rs 37,535 crore, has gone to secomd position. The Prudential ICICI MF has slipped to the third position with an AUM of Rs 34,746 crore. It happened for the first time in last one year that a private sector mutual fund house has reached to the top slot in terms of asset under management (AUM). In the last one year to January, AUM of the Indian fund industry has risen by 64% to Rs 3.39 lakh crore. According to the data released by Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI), the combined average AUM of the 35 fund houses in the country increased to Rs 5,512.99 billion in April compared to Rs 4,932.86 billion in March Reliance MF maintained its top position as the largest fund house in the country with Rs 74.25 billion jump in AUM to Rs 883.87 billion at April-end. The second-largest fund house HDFC MF gained Rs 59.24 billion in its AUM at Rs 638.80 billion. ICICI Prudential and state-run UTI MF added Rs 46.16 billion and Rs 57.35 billion re respectively to their assets last month. ICICI Prudential`s AUM stood at Rs 560.49 billion at the end of April, while UTI MF had assets worth Rs 544.89 billion. The other fund houses which saw an increase in their average AUM in April include -Canara Robeco MF, IDFC MF, DSP BlackRock, Deutsche MF, Kotak Mahindra MF and LIC MF.
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100% growth in the last 6 years. Number of foreign AMC's are in the queue to enter the Indian markets like Fidelity Investments, US based, with over US$1trillion assets under management worldwide. Our saving rate is over 23%, highest in the world. Only channelizing these savings in mutual funds sector is required. We have approximately 29 mutual funds which is much less than US having more than 800. There is a big scope for expansion. 'B' and 'C' class cities are growing rapidly. Today most of the mutual funds are concentrating on the 'A' class cities. Soon they will find scope in the growing cities. Mutual fund can penetrate rurals like the Indian insurance industry with simple and limited products. SEBI allowing the MF's to launch commodity mutual funds. Emphasis on better corporate governance. Trying to curb the late trading practices. Introduction of Financial Planners who can provide need based advice. Looking at the past developments and combining it with the current trends it can be
concluded that the future of Mutual Funds in India has lot of positive things to offer to its investors.
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CONCLUSION
Mutual Funds now represent perhaps most appropriate investment opportunity for most investors. As financial markets become more sophisticated and complex, investors need a financial intermediary who provides the required knowledge and professional expertise on successful investing. As the investor always try to maximize the returns and minimize the risk. Mutual fund satisfies these requirements by providing attractive returns with affordable risks. The fund industry has already overtaken the banking industry, more funds being under mutual fund management than deposited with banks. With the emergence of tough competition in this sector mutual funds are launching a variety of schemes which caters to the requirement of the particular class of investors. Risk takers for getting capital appreciation should invest in growth, equity schemes. Investors who are in need of regular income should invest in income plans. The stock market has been rising for over three years now. This in turn has not only protected the money invested in funds but has also to helped grow these investments. This has also instilled greater confidence among fund investors who are investing more into the market through the MF route than ever before. Reliance India mutual funds provide major benefits to a common man who wants to make his life better than previous. India's largest mutual fund, UTI, still controls nearly 80 per cent of the market. Also, the mutual fund industry as a whole gets less than 2 per cent of household savings against the 46 per cent that go into bank deposits. Some fund managers say this only indicates the sector's potential. "If mutual funds succeed in chipping away at bank deposits, even a triple digit growth is possible over the next few years.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
REFERENCE BOOK: FINANCIAL MARKET AND SERVICES -Gordon and Natarajan WEBSITE: www.utimf.com www.reliancemutual.com www.amfiindia.com SEARCH ENGINE: www.google.com www.altavista.com www.yahoo.com
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