The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has prescribed new norms to standardize and bring uniformity in the benchmarks of mutual fund schemes. SEBI has decided that certain categories of mutual funds will now follow a two-tiered structure for benchmarking of schemes. As per SEBI’s circular, the first-tier benchmark will reflect the category of…

The five-day-long Diwali festivities starts tomorrow (November 02) with Dhanteras, and many consider it to be an extremely auspicious day for new purchases, especially items made of gold and silver, or new household utensils made of steel, copper, brass, etc. Like most festivals in India, the significance of buying precious metal like gold during Dhanteras is linked with…

Over the past few years Credit Risk Funds have been making headlines for all the wrong reasons. It started with one of India’s leading infrastructure and Finance companies, IL&FS, defaulting on paying interest to its bond holders in September 2018. In the next 2-3 months, rating agencies downgraded the AAA rated debt instruments of IL&FS to D.…

After recording a stupendous rally in the past 18 months, the Nifty Small Cap 100 index reached its all-time high level of 11,677 on October 18, 2021. However, the small-cap segment has witnessed some consolidation in the past few days and is down by around 7% from its peak (as of October 28, 2021). We…

The S&P BSE Sensex has surpassed the 61,000 mark and the Nifty 50 index is trading above the 18,000 level. These large-cap indices have more than doubled since the March 2020 low, growing by around 135% in absolute terms (as of Oct 25, 2021). Since the beginning of 2021, the Sensex has gained 28%; the Nifty 50…

In the past one and a half years or so, equity mutual fund investors have been through a roller coaster of emotions. As the equity market moved from multi-year lows in March 2020, to all-time high in the recent months, investor emotions too have sailed from extreme fear to euphoria. Equity market and emotions often go hand…

Equity mutual funds have the potential to generate market-beating returns, however with more than 10 equity mutual fund categories available, it can be challenging to select the most suitable ones. Notably, for many investors nearly half the categories are irrelevant. Selecting the right category is an important step in creating a successful equity mutual fund…

Growth in the equity market over a period of time is usually driven by few select stocks that have the ability to clock a high growth rate compared to the broader market. By investing in such high conviction stocks, Focused Funds aim to generate higher returns than diversified equity mutual funds. Focused Funds endeavour to…

The current bull market that started in late March 2020, has more than doubled the wealth of equity investors. The Sensex has recently surpassed a new high of 61,000 while Nifty 50 is trading near 18,500. Notably, the broader market has outperformed the large-cap index. Mutual fund investors who kept their investment intact in the…

Equity Linked Saving Schemes (ELSS), also known as tax saving mutual funds, are diversified equity funds that come with the dual advantage of wealth-building potential and tax-saving benefits. These funds come with a lock-in of period of 3 years. With the market at all-time high (the S&P BSE Sensex has crossed the 61,000 mark), it can be…