MF Equity Schemes

Equity deployment by mutual funds drops sharply as inflows moderate and fund managers turn cautious amid rising valuations and profit booking

Active schemes steady portfolios where benchmarks wobble

Equity mutual fund (MF) investments surged in August to a 10-month high, indicating strong inflows into equity MF schemes post-July's record highs, despite a market correction

Bajaj Finserv Equity Savings Fund will maintain an overall equity allocation of at least 65 per cent, including arbitrage, allowing it to qualify for equity-oriented taxation

Capitalmind Flexi Cap Fund will track the Nifty 500 TRI, which is also tracked by most of the other flexi-cap funds

Says caution is warranted for segments with stretched valuations and peaking business cycles, such as engineering and capital goods or automotive

The sharp spike in commission comes on the back of surge in the equity markets and sustained flows into equity MF schemes

The figure is 18% below monthly average for the year; However, sustained inflows into SIPs endured for 16th straight month

The share of such plans among equity schemes has risen around 7 percentage points from 9.6 per cent to 16.6 per cent in the past five years

But it remains to be seen whether this is on account of incremental flows or has to do with appreciation in stock prices

In a Q&A, the MD-CEO of the fund house shares its journey to the top and his views on the cost of investing

Asset-weighted returns of large cap funds lagged their benchmark by 273 basis points, ELSS funds by 318 bps and mid- and small-cap funds by 230 bps

While they hold no more than 5% of GOI debt stock jointly, their buying and selling stood out in 2020, when Centre and state govts expanded their market borrowing plans

Switching from one scheme to another is treated as transfer and is subject to capital gains tax

Contributions totalled Rs 7,792 crore in August, half a per cent lower than the Rs 7,831 crore garnered in the previous month

Open-ended schemes' outflows have surpassed Rs 2,480 crore outflows seen in July-their first after over four years

Gold ETFs drew largest monthly flows in five months amid risk-aversion

Overall, the mutual fund industry witnessed a net inflow of Rs 7,265 crore across all segments last month

In April -- which was the first full month post-lockdown -- equity flows were down 47 per cent down to Rs 6,212 crore, reflecting the impact of lockdown

Industry participants, however, say the run-up in market prices may not be enough to improve the sentiment of investors