Nine out of 10 banks polled by ET expect the central bank to hike rates by 35 basis points - 0.35 of a percentage point - or less at the December 5-7 meeting of the monetary policy committee (MPC). While five of the nine predict a rate increase of 35 bps, two expect it will be in a range of 25-35 bps, another two project a 25 bps hike.

The good thing is that Indian mutual fund investors have matured a lot. Unlike the past decade, Indian MF investors bought on every dip.

If we look at the inflows in these two funds categories in the calendar year 2022, it is Rs 33,920 crore in mid cap funds and Rs 29,240 crore in small cap funds, which is 10.71% and 9.23% of overall inflows in equity funds respectively.

Among the sectoral funds, IT has been the worst affected this year. While infra and banking funds are up about 11% and 21% respectively, pharma funds are down about 6% so far.

"Our preferred portfolio stance has been India-centric growth sectors like, financials, consumer discretionary and industrials for much of this year and this largely stays but pockets of value have started to emerge in some of the global-oriented sectors such as technology, pharmaceuticals, and commodities. Some of these would also receive support to their earnings from a weak currency."

"Investors can start allocating small amounts to long duration products as the risk of mark-to-market loss has reduced significantly," says Sachin Jain, Mutual Fund Analyst, ICICI Securities.

The capital markets regulator said in a communication to the industry on November 30, Telegram is rife with dubious groups masquerading as fund houses. Sebi's warning to the industry comes in the wake of instances where investors have been defrauded by these telegram group operators, said three mutual fund industry officials.

This is a passive fund that is relatively low cost, compared to actively managed schemes that tend to have a higher expense ratio.

“A positive thing has been the continuous SIP inflows by retail investors. So, clearly, the message that ‘timing the markets’ doesn’t work is reaching investors. This has supported Indian markets amid widespread foreign sell-off,” says Prableen Bajpai, founder, Finfix Research & Analytics

The BHARAT Bond ETF is India's first corporate bond ETF and it is an initiative of the Government of India, from the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management and the latter has given the mandate to Edelweiss Mutual Fund to design, launch and manage the product.

Online mutual funds distribution platform BSE StAR MF has surpassed its previous high to process record 2.32 crore transactions in November, clocking a growth of 10% month-on-month and 38% year-on-year.

We reached out to NJ Mutual Fund, one of the new entrants in the mutual fund industry, to find out about its journey in the last one and a half year. Rajiv Shastri, Director and CEO, NJ AMC says that 2022 was challenging and he learnt a lot.

IDFC AMC is one of the top 10 AMCs in the country with an average assets under management of over Rs 1.2 lakh crore. It has investment products across equities, fixed income, and hybrid.

Equity indices have delivered 11-12% over a long period since 1995. Should a householder invest only in equities then? Probably that would not be wise.

The regulator said the initial margin payable by the client to the stock broker should be in the form of cash, cash equivalent or equity ETFs.

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“In order to avoid inconsistency in investment by MFs in debt instruments of an issuer, irrespective of the scheme being actively or passively managed, it has been decided to introduce a similar credit rating based single issuer limit for actively managed mutual fund schemes,” Sebi said.

Currently, credit risk-based single-issuer limits are allowed for debt exchange-traded funds to enable them to effectively manage the risk associated with such investments.

​A Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) is a mode of investment offered by mutual funds. Using this method, an investor can put in a fixed amount of money at predefined intervals in a chosen mutual fund scheme.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) net bought Indian shares worth ₹1,241.57 crore on Tuesday, showed provisional data from the stock exchanges. So far this month, including Tuesday's provisional data, FPIs have purchased shares worth nearly ₹29,284 crore in the cash segment, the best in three months.

“Segments like consumer durables where the valuations have not corrected and are not reflecting the current picture of some slowdown seen in the overall consumption, the competitive pressure is very high and the inability of the companies to pass on the pricing. That is leading to margin contraction and those probably are not getting fully reflected in the valuations.”

The Quant ESG Fund is one-year old and is the topper in the category, where a few schemes like Invesco India ESG Fund, ABSL ESG Fund and Axis ESG Fund have offered negative returns in one year.

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"Equity valuations are above average and not cheap. There are pockets like banking and PSU stocks which are attractive, while consumption is expensive," said Rajeev Thakkar, Chief Investment Officer, PPFAS Mutual Fund.

"Debt has become an attractive asset class today because of the higher yields amid rising interest rates," said Sankaran Naren, executive director, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund.

Union AMC today announced the inauguration of its first branch in North East in Guwahati. Union AMC is co- sponsored by Union Bank of India and Dai-ichi Life Holdings Inc. of Japan.

An up-trending profit cycle, a likely peak in short rates in 1Q2023 and ebbing global macro risks relative to 2022 make the case for absolute upside to Indian stocks," said Morgan Stanley in a note to clients. "That said, India's relative gains may take a breather in 2023.

HSBC Asset Management (India) has said that it has completed the acquisition of L&T Investment Management for a consideration of US$ 425 million, subject to closing adjustments.

Nifty Indices linked passive funds account for 76% market share in terms of total number of equity and debt passive funds and 73% market share in terms of total Asset under Management (AUM) of equity and debt Funds in India.

The investment objective of the scheme is to seek long term capital growth by investing in allocation ranging for equities between 65-80%, fixed Income and gold ETFs at 10-25% each along with up to 10% in units of REITs and INVITs.

Alternatively, AMFI has suggested that holding period to avail long-term capital gains taxation in respect of Gold ETFs (exchange traded funds) should be reduced from existing three years to one year.

The Portfolio Doctor assesses the health of the fund portfolio, examines the schemes and their suitability with regard to the goals and, if required, recommends corrective measures. The advice given is based on the performance of the funds, the risk profile of the investor as well as his financial goals.

While it had a track record of modest outperformance leading up to the recategorisation, it has been erratic in the past few years. Strong showing in 2020 and 2021 has been wiped away by sharp underperformance this year, hurting its long term track record. It needs to find its feet quickly to catch up with its peers.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said fund houses should pay dividends to unitholders within seven days and the redemption amount should be given within three days.

The Nifty Pharma Index has grown at 9.52% annually since October 2012. For example, Rs.1,00,000 invested in the Nifty Pharma Index in 2012 would be worth Rs. 2,48,220 by the end of October 2022.

Sebi's latest decision follows the Franklin Templeton episode, in which the fund house's few executives were accused of redeeming their holdings in the schemes ahead of the six debt schemes shutting for redemption.

The industry body has also requested for various steps to be taken for the betterment of the mutual fund industry and investors and to deepen the equity market via mutual funds.

Whenever the stock market crosses a psychologically-significant mark, many investors, especially mutual fund investors, inevitably ask: Should we do something different? Sell or buy something?

The Scheme will be benchmarked against NIFTY 500 Multicap 50:25:25 TRI. The stock selection will be based on the “Fair Value” approach.

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The report by MOFS indicates that the slowdown in lumpsum investments has been on account of large HNIs waiting for a better entry point as the equity market is close to a new high, weakness in flows from lower-end customers in rural areas, and reduced NFO activity by large AMCs in the equity segment.

"If an investor has 100 rupees, they could probably consider investing 50-60 rupees immediately and the remaining post the budget clarity."

San Francisco-headquartered TPG Capital, one of the largest private equity (PE) firms, managing more than $120 billion in assets as of August, has been doubling down on investing in India after a cool-off period between 2012-2014.

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Silver has witnessed sharp volatility since the start of this year, marking a high of Rs 73,000 and a low of 51,500. Analysts believe that silver ETFs might gain from many global and domestic tailwinds.

According to the fund house, the scheme is suitable for investors seeking long term capital appreciation and Investment predominantly in equity and equity related securities of small cap companies.

Investors need to make the right comparisons while evaluating returns. For example, a large cap equity fund should be compared with its benchmark or another large-cap fund and not with a mid-cap or thematic fund.

Economists have factored a lower growth for the September quarter at 6.5 percent compared to 13.5 percent in the June quarter. Despite risks of a further slowdown, the Reserve Bank is still expected to deliver a 35 to 50 basis points ( one bps is 0.01 percent) rate hike to manage inflation within the mandated band of 2-6 percent.

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