The beginning of the financial year is the best time to begin your tax planning exercise. Doing so allows you to explore various tax-saving avenues and pick the most suitable one that aligns with your investment objective, risk profile, time horizon. Equity-linked Saving Scheme (ELSS), Public Provident Fund (PPF), Tax Saving Bank Deposit, Life insurance…

A strong second wave of COVID-19 has increased the volatility in the Indian equity markets. Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs), who net purchased Rs 2,74,502 crore worth of Indian equities since April last year, have now turned cautious; they tapered their investments in March 2021.   On the other hand, domestic mutual funds have turned net…

India is witnessing a strong second wave of COVID-19. After bending the curve around mid-September last year, the infections are on the rise every day across parts of the country with the double-mutant strain (E484Q and L452R) and a variety of variants (U.K., South African, and Brazilian). The tally of active COVID-19 cases in India has…

The S&P BSE Sensex continues to trade near the 50,000 mark, overcoming the temporary blip caused by the fears surrounding the second wave of coronavirus infections in India. This may point to investors ruling out the possibility of renewed lockdown clamps in the country. Recently, the RBI governor expressed confidence that the new wave is unlikely to…

It is not very often that we hear of extraordinary returns in mutual fund schemes; such returns are generally associated with investments in direct equities. As you know 2020 was a highly volatile year for the equity market due to the impact of COVID-19 outbreak on the economy. Despite this, the market witnessed a broad-based…

The Indian equity market crashed to multi-year lows in March 2020 due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. However, by the end of the year, as the lockdown restrictions were steadily lifted, the equity market performed well by not only recovering the losses but also setting new all-time highs. Recently, with reports of a resurgence…

The massive monetary and fiscal stimulus package (worth USD 410 billion) by the U.S. Federal government to prop-up economic growth amidst the pandemic has been unsettling bond investors as they anticipate potential overheating of the economy and spike in inflation. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield from around 0.50% in August 2020 has been inched-up to…

After scaling all-time highs the Indian equity market has turned volatile amid resurgence in COVID-19 cases. However, since the government has not announced any major lockdown restrictions and with the pace of vaccination drive picking up, the impact on the equity market may not be as severe as the one witnessed last year. Despite this,…

In a relief to debt mutual funds and its investors, SEBI has relaxed guidelines on the valuation of perpetual bonds. Few days back, SEBI had issued a circular asking mutual funds to treat AT-1 bonds (Perpetual bonds) as having 100-year maturity. This sent shockwaves in the bond market because it was expected to result in…

SEBI guidelines allow mutual funds to exercise their voting rights in investee companies in the best interest of unitholders. To further improve transparency as well as encourage Mutual Funds/AMCs to diligently exercise their voting rights in the best interest of the unitholders, it has prescribed additional guidelines based on the deliberations made by Mutual Funds Advisory Committee (MFAC)……