The research was carried on in Dehradoon. I had been sent at one of the branch of State Bank of India Dehradoon where I completed my Project work. I surveyed on my Project Topic “A study of preferences of the Investors for investment in Mutual Fund” on the visiting customers of the SBI Boring Canal Road Branch.
The study will help to know the preferences of the customers, which company, portfolio, mode of investment, option for getting return and so on they prefer. This project report may help the company to make further planning and strategy.
Chapter – 4
Research Methodology
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This report is based on primary as well secondary data, however primary data collection was given more importance since it is overhearing factor in attitude studies. One of the most important users of research methodology is that it helps in identifying the problem, collecting, analyzing the required information data and providing an alternative solution to the problem .It also helps in collecting the vital information that is required by the top management to assist them for the better decision making both day to day decision and critical ones.
Data sources:
Research is totally based on primary data. Secondary data can be used only for the reference. Research has been done by primary data collection, and primary data has been collected by interacting with various people. The secondary data has been collected through various journals and websites.
Duration of Study:
The study was carried out for a period of two months, from 30th May to 30th July 2008.
Sampling:
The sample was selected of them who are the customers/visitors of State Bank if India, Boring Canal Road Branch, irrespective of them being investors or not or availing the services or not. It was also collected through personal visits to persons, by formal and informal talks and through filling up the questionnaire prepared. The data has been analyzed by using mathematical/Statistical tool.
The sample size of my project is limited to 200 people only. Out of which only 120 people had invested in Mutual Fund. Other 80 people did not have invested in Mutual Fund.
Data has been presented with the help of bar graph, pie charts, line graphs etc.
Limitation:
- Some of the persons were not so responsive.
- Possibility of error in data collection because many of investors may have not
given actual answers of my questionnaire.
- Sample size is limited to 200 visitors of State Bank of India , Boring Canal Road
Branch, Dehradoon out of these only 120 had invested in Mutual Fund. The sample.
size may not adequately represent the whole market.
- Some respondents were reluctant to divulge personal information which can
affect the validity of all responses.
- The research is confined to a certain part of Dehradoon.
Chapter – 5
Data Analysis & Interpretation
ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION OF THE DATA
1. (a) Age distribution of the Investors of Dehradoon
Interpretation:
According to this chart out of 120 Mutual Fund investors of Dehradoon the most are in the age group of 36-40 yrs. i.e. 25%, the second most investors are in the age group of 41-45yrs i.e. 20% and the least investors are in the age group of below 30 yrs.
(b). Educational Qualification of investors of Dehradoon
Interpretation:
Out of 120 Mutual Fund investors 71% of the investors in Dehradoon are Graduate/Post Graduate, 23% are Under Graduate and 6% are others (under HSC).
c). Occupation of the investors of Dehradoon
.
Interpretation:
In Occupation group out of 120 investors, 38% are Pvt. Employees, 25% are Businessman, 29% are Govt. Employees, 3% are in Agriculture and 5% are in others.
(d). Monthly Family Income of the Investors of Dehradoon.
Interpretation:
In the Income Group of the investors of Dehradoon, out of 120 investors, 36% investors that is the maximum investors are in the monthly income group Rs. 20,001 to Rs. 30,000, Second one i.e. 27% investors are in the monthly income group of more than Rs. 30,000 and the minimum investors i.e. 4% are in the monthly income group of below Rs. 10,000
(2) Investors invested in different kind of investments.
Interpretation: From the above graph it can be inferred that out of 200 people, 97.5% people have invested in Saving A/c, 76% in Insurance, 74% in Fixed Deposits, 60% in Mutual Fund, 37.5% in Post Office, 25% in Shares or Debentures, 15% in Gold/Silver and 32.5% in Real Estate.
3. Preference of factors while investing
Interpretation:
Out of 200 People, 32% People prefer to invest where there is High Return, 30% prefer to invest where there is Low Risk, 20% prefer easy Liquidity and 18% prefer Trust
4. Awareness about Mutual Fund and its Operations
Interpretation:
From the above chart it is inferred that 67% People are aware of Mutual Fund and its operations and 33% are not aware of Mutual Fund and its operations.
5. Source of information for customers about Mutual Fund
Interpretation:
From the above chart it can be inferred that the Financial Advisor is the most important source of information about Mutual Fund. Out of 135 Respondents, 46% know about Mutual fund Through Financial Advisor, 22% through Bank, 19% through Peer Group and 13% through Advertisement.
6. Investors invested in Mutual Fund
Interpretation:
Out of 200 People, 60% have invested in Mutual Fund and 40% do not have invested in Mutual Fund.
7. Reason for not invested in Mutual Fund
Interpretation:
Out of 80 people, who have not invested in Mutual Fund, 81% are not aware of Mutual Fund, 13% said there is likely to be higher risk and 6% do not have any specific reason.
8. Investors invested in different Assets Management Co. (AMC)
Interpretation:
In Dehradoon most of the Investors preferred UTI and Reliance Mutual Fund. Out of 120 Investors 62.5% have invested in each of them, only 46% have invested in SBIMF, 47% in ICICI Prudential, 37.5% in Kotak and 25% in HDFC.
9. Reason for invested in SBIMF
Interpretation:
Out of 55 investors of SBIMF 64% have invested because of its association with Brand SBI, 27% invested on Agent’s Advice, 9% invested because of better return.
10. Reason for not invested in SBIMF
Interpretation:
Out of 65 people who have not invested in SBIMF, 38% were not aware with SBIMF, 28% do not have invested due to less return and 34% due to Agent’s Advice.
11. Preference of Investors for future investment in Mutual Fund
Interpretation:
Out of 120 investors, 68% prefer to invest in Reliance, 67% in ICICI Prudential, 63% in SBIMF, 62.5% in Others, 50% in Kotak, 37.5% in UTI and 29% in HDFC Mutual Fund.
12. Channel Preferred by the Investors for Mutual Fund Investment
Interpretation:
Out of 120 Investors 60% preferred to invest through Financial Advisors, 25% through AMC and 15% through Bank.
13. Mode of Investment Preferred by the Investors
Interpretation:
Out of 120 Investors 65% preferred One time Investment and 35 % Preferred through Systematic Investment Plan.
14. Preferred Portfolios by the Investors
Interpretation:
From the above graph 46% preferred Equity Portfolio, 37% preferred Balance and 17% preferred Debt portfolio
15. Option for getting Return Preferred by the Investors
Interpretation:
From the above graph 71% preferred Growth Option, 21% preferred Dividend Payout and 8% preferred Dividend Reinvestment Option.
16. Preference of Investors whether to invest in Sectoral Funds
Interpretation:
Out of 120 investors, 79% investors do not prefer to invest in Sectoral Fund because there is maximum risk and 21% prefer to invest in Sectoral Fund.
Chapter – 6
Findings and Conclusion
Findings
- In Dehradoon in the Age Group of 36-40 years were more in numbers. The second most Investors were in the age group of 41-45 years and the least were in the age group of below 30 years.
- In Dehradoon most of the Investors were Graduate or Post Graduate and below HSC there were very few in numbers.
- In Occupation group most of the Investors were Govt. employees, the second most Investors were Private employees and the least were associated with Agriculture.
- In family Income group, between Rs. 20,001- 30,000 were more in numbers, the second most were in the Income group of more than Rs.30,000 and the least were in the group of below Rs. 10,000.
- About all the Respondents had a Saving A/c in Bank, 76% Invested in Fixed Deposits, Only 60% Respondents invested in Mutual fund.
- Mostly Respondents preferred High Return while investment, the second most preferred Low Risk then liquidity and the least preferred Trust.
- Only 67% Respondents were aware about Mutual fund and its operations and 33% were not.
- Among 200 Respondents only 60% had invested in Mutual Fund and 40% did not have invested in Mutual fund.
- Out of 80 Respondents 81% were not aware of Mutual Fund, 13% told there is not any specific reason for not invested in Mutual Fund and 6% told there is likely to be higher risk in Mutual Fund.
- Most of the Investors had invested in Reliance or UTI Mutual Fund, ICICI Prudential has also good Brand Position among investors, SBIMF places after ICICI Prudential according to the Respondents.
- Out of 55 investors of SBIMF 64% have invested due to its association with the Brand SBI, 27% Invested because of Advisor’s Advice and 9% due to better return.
- Most of the investors who did not invested in SBIMF due to not Aware of SBIMF, the second most due to Agent’s advice and rest due to Less Return.
- For Future investment the maximum Respondents preferred Reliance Mutual Fund, the second most preferred ICICI Prudential, SBIMF has been preferred after them.
- 60% Investors preferred to Invest through Financial Advisors, 25% through AMC (means Direct Investment) and 15% through Bank.
- 65% preferred One Time Investment and 35% preferred SIP out of both type of Mode of Investment.
- The most preferred Portfolio was Equity, the second most was Balance (mixture of both equity and debt), and the least preferred Portfolio was Debt portfolio.
- Maximum Number of Investors Preferred Growth Option for returns, the second most preferred Dividend Payout and then Dividend Reinvestment.
- Most of the Investors did not want to invest in Sectoral Fund, only 21% wanted to invest in Sectoral Fund.
Conclusion
Running a successful Mutual Fund requires complete understanding of the peculiarities of the Indian Stock Market and also the psyche of the small investors. This study has made an attempt to understand the financial behavior of Mutual Fund investors in connection with the preferences of Brand (AMC), Products, Channels etc. I observed that many of people have fear of Mutual Fund. They think their money will not be secure in Mutual Fund. They need the knowledge of Mutual Fund and its related terms. Many of people do not have invested in mutual fund due to lack of awareness although they have money to invest. As the awareness and income is growing the number of mutual fund investors are also growing.
“Brand” plays important role for the investment. People invest in those Companies where they have faith or they are well known with them. There are many AMCs in Dehradoon but only some are performing well due to Brand awareness. Some AMCs are not performing well although some of the schemes of them are giving good return because of not awareness about Brand. Reliance, UTI, SBIMF, ICICI Prudential etc. they are well known Brand, they are performing well and their Assets Under Management is larger than others whose Brand name are not well known like Principle, Sunderam, etc.
Distribution channels are also important for the investment in mutual fund. Financial Advisors are the most preferred channel for the investment in mutual fund. They can change investors’ mind from one investment option to others. Many of investors directly invest their money through AMC because they do not have to pay entry load. Only those people invest directly who know well about mutual fund and its operations and those have time.
Chapter – 7
Suggestions
And
Recommendations
Suggestions and Recommendations
- The most vital problem spotted is of ignorance. Investors should be made aware of the benefits. Nobody will invest until and unless he is fully convinced. Investors should be made to realize that ignorance is no longer bliss and what they are losing by not investing.
- Mutual funds offer a lot of benefit which no other single option could offer. But most of the people are not even aware of what actually a mutual fund is? They only see it as just another investment option. So the advisors should try to change their mindsets. The advisors should target for more and more young investors. Young investors as well as persons at the height of their career would like to go for advisors due to lack of expertise and time.
- Mutual Fund Company needs to give the training of the Individual Financial Advisors about the Fund/Scheme and its objective, because they are the main source to influence the investors.
- Before making any investment Financial Advisors should first enquire about the risk tolerance of the investors/customers, their need and time (how long they want to invest). By considering these three things they can take the customers into consideration.
- Younger people aged under 35 will be a key new customer group into the future, so making greater efforts with younger customers who show some interest in investing should pay off.
- Customers with graduate level education are easier to sell to and there is a large untapped market there. To succeed however, advisors must provide sound advice and high quality.
- Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) is one the innovative products launched by Assets Management companies very recently in the industry. SIP is easy for monthly salaried person as it provides the facility of do the investment in EMI. Though most of the prospects and potential investors are not aware about the SIP. There is a large scope for the companies to tap the salaried persons.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- TELEVISION CHANNEL (CNBC AAWAJ)
- WWW. MUTUALFUNDSINDIA.COM
Mutual Funds
All About Mutual Funds
Before we understand what is mutual fund, it’s very important to know the area in which mutual funds works, the basic understanding of stocks and bonds.
Stocks : Stocks represent shares of ownership in a public company. Examples of public companies include Reliance, ONGC and Infosys. Stocks are considered to be the most common owned investment traded on the market.
Bonds : Bonds are basically the money which you lend to the government or a company, and in return you can receive interest on your invested amount, which is back over predetermined amounts of time. Bonds are considered to be the most common lending investment traded on the market. There are many other types of investments other than stocks and bonds (including annuities, real estate, and precious metals), but the majority of mutual funds invest in stocks and/or bonds.
What Is Mutual Fund
A mutual fund is just the connecting bridge or a financial intermediary that allows a group of investors to pool their money together with a predetermined investment objective. The mutual fund will have a fund manager who is responsible for investing the gathered money into specific securities (stocks or bonds). When you invest in a mutual fund, you are buying units or portions of the mutual fund and thus on investing becomes a shareholder or unit holder of the fund.
Mutual funds are considered as one of the best available investments as compare to others they are very cost efficient and also easy to invest in, thus by pooling money together in a mutual fund, investors can purchase stocks or bonds with much lower trading costs than if they tried to do it on their own. But the biggest advantage to mutual funds is diversification, by minimizing risk & maximizing returns.
Thus a Mutual Fund is the most suitable investment for the common man as it offers an opportunity to invest in a diversified, professionally managed basket of securities at a relatively low cost. The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a mutual fund
Unit Trust of India is the first Mutual Fund set up under a separate act, UTI Act in 1963, and started its operations in 1964 with the issue of units under the scheme US-64.
Overview of existing schemes existed in mutual fund category
Wide variety of Mutual Fund Schemes exists to cater to the needs such as financial position, risk tolerance and return expectations etc. The table below gives an overview into the existing types of schemes in the Industry.
Type of Mutual Fund Schemes
BY STRUCTURE
Open Ended Schemes
An open-end fund is one that is available for subscription all through the year. These do not have a fixed maturity. Investors can conveniently buy and sell units at Net Asset Value ("NAV") related prices. The key feature of open-end schemes is liquidity.
Close Ended Schemes
A closed-end fund has a stipulated maturity period which generally ranging from 3 to 15 years. The fund is open for subscription only during a specified period. Investors can invest in the scheme at the time of the initial public issue and thereafter they can buy or sell the units of the scheme on the stock exchanges where they are listed. In order to provide an exit route to the investors, some close-ended funds give an option of selling back the units to the Mutual Fund through periodic repurchase at NAV related prices. SEBI Regulations stipulate that at least one of the two exit routes is provided to the investor.
Interval Schemes
Interval Schemes are that scheme, which combines the features of open-ended and close-ended 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.
BY NATURE
1. Equity fund:
These funds invest a maximum part of their corpus into equities holdings. The structure of the fund may vary different for different schemes and the fund manager’s 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 the risk-return matrix.
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.
-
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 provide 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.
BY INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE
-
Growth Schemes: Growth Schemes are also known as equity schemes. The aim of these schemes is to 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).
-
Money Market Schemes: Money Market Schemes aim to provide easy liquidity, preservation of capital and moderate income. These schemes generally invest in safer, short-term instruments, such as treasury bills, certificates of deposit, commercial paper and inter-bank call money.
OTHER SCHEMES
-
Tax Saving Schemes: Tax-saving schemes offer tax rebates to the investors under tax laws prescribed from time to time. Under Sec.88 of the Income Tax Act, contributions made to any Equity Linked Savings Scheme (ELSS) are eligible for rebate.
-
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.
-
Sector Specific Schemes: These are the funds/schemes which invest in the securities of only those sectors or industries as specified in the offer documents. e.g. Pharmaceuticals, Software, Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), Petroleum stocks, etc. The returns in these funds are dependent on the performance of the respective sectors/industries. While these funds may give higher returns, they are more risky compared to diversified funds. Investors need to keep a watch on the performance of those sectors/industries and must exit at an appropriate time.
Types of returns
There are three ways, where the total returns provided by mutual funds can be enjoyed by investors:
- Income is earned from dividends on stocks and interest on bonds. A fund pays out nearly all income it receives over the year to fund owners in the form of a distribution.
- If the fund sells securities that have increased in price, the fund has a capital gain. Most funds also pass on these gains to investors in a distribution.
- If fund holdings increase in price but are not sold by the fund manager, the fund's shares increase in price. You can then sell your mutual fund shares for a profit. Funds will also usually give you a choice either to receive a check for distributions or to reinvest the earnings and get more shares.
Pros & cons of investing in mutual funds:
For investments in mutual fund, one must keep in mind about the Pros and cons of investments in mutual fund.
Advantages of Investing Mutual Funds:
1. Professional Management - The basic advantage of funds is that, they are professional managed, by well qualified professional. Investors purchase funds because they do not have the time or the expertise to manage their own portfolio. A mutual fund is considered to be relatively less expensive way to make and monitor their investments.
2. Diversification - Purchasing units in a mutual fund instead of buying individual stocks or bonds, the investors risk is spread out and minimized up to certain extent. The idea behind diversification is to invest in a large number of assets so that a loss in any particular investment is minimized by gains in others.
3. Economies of Scale - Mutual fund buy and sell large amounts of securities at a time, thus help to reducing transaction costs, and help to bring down the average cost of the unit for their investors.
4. Liquidity - Just like an individual stock, mutual fund also allows investors to liquidate their holdings as and when they want.
5. Simplicity - Investments in mutual fund is considered to be easy, compare to other available instruments in the market, and the minimum investment is small. Most AMC also have automatic purchase plans whereby as little as Rs. 2000, where SIP start with just Rs.50 per month basis.
Disadvantages of Investing Mutual Funds:
1. Professional Management- Some funds doesn’t perform in neither the market, as their management is not dynamic enough to explore the available opportunity in the market, thus many investors debate over whether or not the so-called professionals are any better than mutual fund or investor himself, for picking up stocks.
2. Costs – The biggest source of AMC income, is generally from the entry & exit load which they charge from an investors, at the time of purchase. The mutual fund industries are thus charging extra cost under layers of jargon.
3. Dilution - Because funds have small holdings across different companies, high returns from a few investments often don't make much difference on the overall return. Dilution is also the result of a successful fund getting too big. When money pours into funds that have had strong success, the manager often has trouble finding a good investment for all the new money.
4. Taxes - when making decisions about your money, fund managers don't consider your personal tax situation. For example, when a fund manager sells a security, a capital-gain tax is triggered, which affects how profitable the individual is from the sale. It might have been more advantageous for the individual to defer the capital gains liability.
Mutual Funds Industry in India
The origin of mutual fund industry in India is with the introduction of the concept of mutual fund by UTI in the year 1963. Though the growth was slow, but it accelerated from the year 1987 when non-UTI players entered the industry.
In the past decade, Indian mutual fund industry had seen a dramatic improvements, both quality wise as well as quantity wise. Before, the monopoly of the market had seen an ending phase, the Assets Under Management (AUM) was Rs. 67bn. The private sector entry to the fund family rose the AUM to Rs. 470 in in March 1993 and till April 2004, it reached the height of 1,540 bn.
Putting the AUM of the Indian Mutual Funds Industry into comparison, the total of it is less than the deposits of SBI alone, constitute less than 11% of the total deposits held by the Indian banking industry.
The main reason of its poor growth is that the mutual fund industry in India is new in the country. Large sections of Indian investors are yet to be intellectuated with the concept. Hence, it is the prime responsibility of all mutual fund companies, to market the product correctly abreast of selling.
The mutual fund industry can be broadly put into four phases according to the development of the sector. Each phase is briefly described as under.
The major players in the Indian Mutual Fund Industry are:
Major Players of Mutual Funds In India
Period (Last 1 Week)
A mutual fund is a professionally-managed firm of collective investments that pools money from many investors and invests it in stocks, bonds, short-term money market instruments, and/or other securities.in other words we can say that A Mutual Fund is a trust registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), which pools up the money from individual / corporate investors and invests the same on behalf of the investors /unit holders, in equity shares, Government securities, Bonds, Call money markets etc., and distributes the profits.
The value of each unit of the mutual fund, known as the net asset value (NAV), is mostly calculated daily based on the total value of the fund divided by the number of shares currently issued and outstanding. The value of all the securities in the portfolio in calculated daily. From this, all expenses are deducted and the resultant value divided by the number of units in the fund is the fund’s NAV.
NAV = _ Total value of the fund……………….
No. of shares currently issued and outstanding
Advantages of a MF
- Mutual Funds provide the benefit of cheap access to expensive stocks
- Mutual funds diversify the risk of the investor by investing in a basket of assets
- A team of professional fund managers manages them with in-depth research inputs from investment analysts.
- Being institutions with good bargaining power in markets, mutual funds have access to crucial corporate information, which individual investors cannot access.
History of the Indian mutual fund industry:
The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India, at the initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank. The history of mutual funds in India can be broadly divided into four distinct phases.
First Phase – 1964-87
Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament by the Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the Reserve Bank of India. In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI. The first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964. At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs.6,700 crores of assets under management.
Second Phase – 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)
1987 marked the entry of non- UTI, public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC). SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed by Canbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87), Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89), Indian Bank Mutual Fund (Nov 89), Bank of India (Jun 90), Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92). LIC established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December 1990.At the end of 1993, the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs.47,004 crores.
Third Phase – 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)
1993 was the year in which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being, under which all mutual funds, except UTI were to be registered and governed. The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993.
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. As at the end of January 2003, there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs. 1,21,805 crores.
Fourth Phase – since February 2003
In February 2003, following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated into two separate entities. One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets under management of Rs.29,835 crores as at the end of January 2003, representing broadly, the assets of US 64 scheme, assured return and certain other schemes
The second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd, sponsored by SBI, PNB, BOB and LIC. It is registered with SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations. consolidation and growth. As at the end of September, 2004, there were 29 funds, which manage assets of Rs.153108 crores under 421 schemes.
Categories of mutual funds:
Mutual funds can be classified as follow:
-
Based on their structure:
- Open-ended funds: Investors can buy and sell the units from the fund, at any point of time.
-
Close-ended funds: These funds raise money from investors only once. Therefore, after the offer period, fresh investments can not be made into the fund. If the fund is listed on a stocks exchange the units can be traded like stocks (E.g., Morgan Stanley Growth Fund). Recently, most of the New Fund Offers of close-ended funds provided liquidity window on a periodic basis such as monthly or weekly. Redemption of units can be made during specified intervals. Therefore, such funds have relatively low liquidity.
-
Based on their investment objective:
Equity funds: These funds invest in equities and equity related instruments. With fluctuating share prices, such funds show volatile performance, even losses. However, short term fluctuations in the market, generally smoothens out in the long term, thereby offering higher returns at relatively lower volatility. At the same time, such funds can yield great capital appreciation as, historically, equities have outperformed all asset classes in the long term. Hence, investment in equity funds should be considered for a period of at least 3-5 years. It can be further classified as:
i) Index funds- In this case a key stock market index, like BSE Sensex or Nifty is tracked. Their portfolio mirrors the benchmark index both in terms of composition and individual stock weightages.
ii) Equity diversified funds- 100% of the capital is invested in equities spreading across different sectors and stocks.
iii) Dividend yield funds- it is similar to the equity diversified funds except that they invest in companies offering high dividend yields.
iv) Thematic funds- Invest 100% of the assets in sectors which are related through some theme.
e.g. -An infrastructure fund invests in power, construction, cements sectors etc.
v) Sector funds- Invest 100% of the capital in a specific sector. e.g. - A banking sector fund will invest in banking stocks.
vi) ELSS- Equity Linked Saving Scheme provides tax benefit to the investors.
Balanced fund: Their investment portfolio includes both debt and equity. As a result, on the risk-return ladder, they fall between equity and debt funds. Balanced funds are the ideal mutual funds vehicle for investors who prefer spreading their risk across various instruments. Following are balanced funds classes:
i) Debt-oriented funds -Investment below 65% in equities.
ii) Equity-oriented funds -Invest at least 65% in equities, remaining in debt.
Debt fund: They invest only in debt instruments, and are a good option for investors averse to idea of taking risk associated with equities. Therefore, they invest exclusively in fixed-income instruments like bonds, debentures, Government of India securities; and money market instruments such as certificates of deposit (CD), commercial paper (CP) and call money. Put your money into any of these debt funds depending on your investment horizon and needs.
i) Liquid funds- These funds invest 100% in money market instruments, a large portion being invested in call money market.
ii)Gilt funds ST- They invest 100% of their portfolio in government securities of and T-bills.
iii)Floating rate funds - Invest in short-term debt papers. Floaters invest in debt instruments which have variable coupon rate.
iv)Arbitrage fund- They generate income through arbitrage opportunities due to mis-pricing between cash market and derivatives market. Funds are allocated to equities, derivatives and money markets. Higher proportion (around 75%) is put in money markets, in the absence of arbitrage opportunities.
v)Gilt funds LT- They invest 100% of their portfolio in long-term government securities.
vi) Income funds LT- Typically, such funds invest a major portion of the portfolio in long-term debt papers.
vii) MIPs- Monthly Income Plans have an exposure of 70%-90% to debt and an exposure of 10%-30% to equities.
viii)FMPs- fixed monthly plans invest in debt papers whose maturity is in line with that of the fund.
Investment strategies:
1. Systematic Investment Plan: under this a fixed sum is invested each month on a fixed date of a month. Payment is made through post dated cheques or direct debit facilities. The investor gets fewer units when the NAV is high and more units when the NAV is low. This is called as the benefit of Rupee Cost Averaging (RCA)
2. Systematic Transfer Plan: under this an investor invest in debt oriented fund and give instructions to transfer a fixed sum, at a fixed interval, to an equity scheme of the same mutual fund.
3. Systematic Withdrawal Plan: if someone wishes to withdraw from a mutual fund then he can withdraw a fixed amount each month.
Risk v/s. return:
Working of a Mutual fund:
The entire mutual fund industry operates in a very organized way. The investors, known as unit holders,handover their savings to the AMCs under various schemes. The objective of the investment should match with the objective of the fund to best suit the investors’ needs. The AMCs further invest the funds into various securities according to the investment objective. The return generated from the investments is passed on to the investors or reinvested as mentioned in the offer document.
Working
Of
Mutual Fund
Mutual Funds
Before we understand what is mutual fund, it’s very important to know the area in which mutual funds works, the basic understanding of stocks and bonds.
Stocks : Stocks represent shares of ownership in a public company. Examples of public companies include Reliance, ONGC and Infosys. Stocks are considered to be the most common owned investment traded on the market.
Bonds : Bonds are basically the money which you lend to the government or a company, and in return you can receive interest on your invested amount, which is back over predetermined amounts of time. Bonds are considered to be the most common lending investment traded on the market. There are many other types of investments other than stocks and bonds (including annuities, real estate, and precious metals), but the majority of mutual funds invest in stocks and/or bonds.
What Is Mutual Fund
A mutual fund is just the connecting bridge or a financial intermediary that allows a group of investors to pool their money together with a predetermined investment objective. The mutual fund will have a fund manager who is responsible for investing the gathered money into specific securities (stocks or bonds). When you invest in a mutual fund, you are buying units or portions of the mutual fund and thus on investing becomes a shareholder or unit holder of the fund.
Mutual funds are considered as one of the best available investments as compare to others they are very cost efficient and also easy to invest in, thus by pooling money together in a mutual fund, investors can purchase stocks or bonds with much lower trading costs than if they tried to do it on their own. But the biggest advantage to mutual funds is diversification, by minimizing risk & maximizing returns.
Thus a Mutual Fund is the most suitable investment for the common man as it offers an opportunity to invest in a diversified, professionally managed basket of securities at a relatively low cost. The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a mutual fund
Overview of existing schemes existed in mutual fund category
Wide variety of Mutual Fund Schemes exists to cater to the needs such as financial position, risk tolerance and return expectations etc. The table below gives an overview into the existing types of schemes in the Industry.
Type of Mutual Fund Schemes
BY STRUCTURE
Open Ended Schemes
An open-end fund is one that is available for subscription all through the year. These do not have a fixed maturity. Investors can conveniently buy and sell units at Net Asset Value ("NAV") related prices. The key feature of open-end schemes is liquidity.
Close Ended Schemes
A closed-end fund has a stipulated maturity period which generally ranging from 3 to 15 years. The fund is open for subscription only during a specified period. Investors can invest in the scheme at the time of the initial public issue and thereafter they can buy or sell the units of the scheme on the stock exchanges where they are listed. In order to provide an exit route to the investors, some close-ended funds give an option of selling back the units to the Mutual Fund through periodic repurchase at NAV related prices. SEBI Regulations stipulate that at least one of the two exit routes is provided to the investor.
Interval Schemes
Interval Schemes are that scheme, which combines the features of open-ended and close-ended 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.
BY NATURE
Under this the mutual fund is categorized on the basis of Investment Objective. By nature the mutual fund is categorized as follow:
1. Equity fund:
These funds invest a maximum part of their corpus into equities holdings. The structure of the fund may vary different for different schemes and the fund manager’s 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 the risk-return matrix.
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:
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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.
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Income Funds: Invest a major portion into various debt instruments such as bonds, corporate debentures and Government securities.
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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.
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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.
BY INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE
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Growth Schemes: Growth Schemes are also known as equity schemes. The aim of these schemes is to 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.
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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.
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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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Money Market Schemes: Money Market Schemes aim to provide easy liquidity, preservation of capital and moderate income. These schemes generally invest in safer, short-term instruments, such as treasury bills, certificates of deposit, commercial paper and inter-bank call money.
OTHER SCHEMES
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Tax Saving Schemes: Tax-saving schemes offer tax rebates to the investors under tax laws prescribed from time to time. Under Sec.88 of the Income Tax Act, contributions made to any Equity Linked Savings Scheme (ELSS) are eligible for rebate.
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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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Sector Specific Schemes: These are the funds/schemes which invest in the securities of only those sectors or industries as specified in the offer documents. e.g. Pharmaceuticals, Software, Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), Petroleum stocks, etc. The returns in these funds are dependent on the performance of the respective sectors/industries. While these funds may give higher returns, they are more risky compared to diversified funds. Investors need to keep a watch on the performance of those sectors/industries and must exit at an appropriate time.
Types of returns:
There are three ways, where the total returns provided by mutual funds can be enjoyed by investors:
- Income is earned from dividends on stocks and interest on bonds. A fund pays out nearly all income it receives over the year to fund owners in the form of a distribution.
- If the fund sells securities that have increased in price, the fund has a capital gain. Most funds also pass on these gains to investors in a distribution.
- If fund holdings increase in price but are not sold by the fund manager, the fund's shares increase in price. You can then sell your mutual fund shares for a profit. Funds will also usually give you a choice either to receive a check for distributions or to reinvest the earnings and get more shares.
Pros & cons of investing in mutual funds:
For investments in mutual fund, one must keep in mind about the Pros and cons of investments in mutual fund.
Advantages of Investing Mutual Funds:
1. Professional Management - The basic advantage of funds is that, they are professional managed, by well qualified professional. Investors purchase funds because they do not have the time or the expertise to manage their own portfolio. A mutual fund is considered to be relatively less expensive way to make and monitor their investments.
2. Diversification - Purchasing units in a mutual fund instead of buying individual stocks or bonds, the investors risk is spread out and minimized up to certain extent. The idea behind diversification is to invest in a large number of assets so that a loss in any particular investment is minimized by gains in others.
3. Economies of Scale - Mutual fund buy and sell large amounts of securities at a time, thus help to reducing transaction costs, and help to bring down the average cost of the unit for their investors.
4. Liquidity - Just like an individual stock, mutual fund also allows investors to liquidate their holdings as and when they want.
5. Simplicity - Investments in mutual fund is considered to be easy, compare to other available instruments in the market, and the minimum investment is small. Most AMC also have automatic purchase plans whereby as little as Rs. 2000, where SIP start with just Rs.50 per month basis.
Disadvantages of Investing Mutual Funds:
1. Professional Management- Some funds doesn’t perform in neither the market, as their management is not dynamic enough to explore the available opportunity in the market, thus many investors debate over whether or not the so-called professionals are any better than mutual fund or investor himself, for picking up stocks.
2. Costs – The biggest source of AMC income, is generally from the entry & exit load which they charge from an investors, at the time of purchase. The mutual fund industries are thus charging extra cost under layers of jargon.
3. Dilution - Because funds have small holdings across different companies, high returns from a few investments often don't make much difference on the overall return. Dilution is also the result of a successful fund getting too big. When money pours into funds that have had strong success, the manager often has trouble finding a good investment for all the new money.
4. Taxes - when making decisions about your money, fund managers don't consider your personal tax situation. For example, when a fund manager sells a security, a capital-gain tax is triggered, which affects how profitable the individual is from the sale. It might have been more advantageous for the individual to defer the capital gains liability.
Guidelines of the SEBI for Mutual Fund Companies :
QUESTIONNAIRE
A study of preferences of the investors for investment in mutual funds.
1. Personal Details:
(a). Name:-
(b). Add: - Phone:-
(c). Age:-
(d). Qualification:-
(e). Occupation. Pl tick (√)
(g). What is your monthly family income approximately? Pl tick (√).
2. What kind of investments you have made so far? Pl tick (√). All applicable.
3. While investing your money, which factor will you prefer?
.
4. Are you aware about Mutual Funds and their operations? Pl tick (√). Yes No
5. If yes, how did you know about Mutual Fund?
6. Have you ever invested in Mutual Fund? Pl tick (√). Yes No
7. If not invested in Mutual Fund then why?
(a) Not aware of MF (b) Higher risk (c) Not any specific reason
8. If yes, in which Mutual Fund you have invested? Pl. tick (√). All applicable.
9. If invested in SBIMF, you do so because (Pl. tick (√), all applicable).
10. If NOT invested in SBIMF, you do so because (Pl. tick (√) all applicable).
11. When you plan to invest your money in asset management co. which AMC will you prefer?
12. Which Channel will you prefer while investing in Mutual Fund?
13. When you invest in Mutual Funds which mode of investment will you prefer? Pl. tick (√).
14. When you want to invest which type of funds would you choose?
15. How would you like to receive the returns every year? Pl. tick (√).
16. Instead of general Mutual Funds, would you like to invest in sectorial funds?
Please tick (√). Yes No
