In the purview of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, the world is currently facing several economic disruptions. However, the current lockdown situation brings the following seven positives with itself to help one set the financial management plans upright.
Retail investors have continued with their investments in mutual funds through Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs) with monthly SIP inflows in March 2020, hitting an all-time high of more than Rs. 8,600 crores.
Source - AMFI
However, with the ongoing volatility coupled with the impact on the regular income and cash flows, many investors are considering discontinuation of their SIPs.
While creating an investment portfolio, it helps to know the tax incidence of different investments. It is usually advised to compare investments in terms of post-tax returns instead of absolute returns. This article discusses key information related to tax on mutual funds in India.
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Below are the provisions on taxation on mutual funds:
Benjamin Graham, one of the early followers of fundamental analysis based investing and also Warren Buffett’s professor, had propounded the concept of Mr. Market way back in the nineteen forties to describe the contradictory and irrational traits of investors. Graham described Mr. Market as an investor prone to erratic swings of pessimism and optimism and since majority of the stock market is comprised of such investors, he felt that the market as a whole takes on these characteristics. His advice was that while Mr.
Solution oriented mutual funds are such funds that aim to fulfil the specific financial goals of the investors, like retirement, child’s education, marriage, etc. To encourage the investors to invest for the long term, such funds tend to carry a lock-in period of 5 years or till the attainment of the age of retirement/ child’s majority, whichever is earlier.
Floater Rate Fund is an open-ended debt scheme predominantly investing in floating rate instruments (including fixed rate instruments converted to floating rate exposures using swaps/ derivatives). These schemes will invest at least 65% of its net assets in floating rate instruments.
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A Corporate Bond Fund is an open-ended debt scheme predominantly investing in AA+ and above rated corporate bonds. These funds are mandated by SEBI to invest a minimum of 80% of total assets in AA+ and above rated corporate bonds. To further clarify, corporate Bonds are one of the predominant sources of funds for the companies willing to borrow from the market, apart from the borrowings from banks and financial institutions.
ETF stands for Exchange Traded Fund. As the name suggests, ETFs can be traded on stock exchanges, just like other stocks listed on stock exchanges.
As per the SEBI Guidelines, ETFs must invest at least 95% of their net assets in the underlying index's securities. Thus, ETFs adopt passive investment strategies tracking different indices, viz., equity, debt, or commodities.
NAV stands for Net Asset Value, which serves as the base and the transaction price for all the investment transactions, including purchase, redemption, switch transactions in a mutual fund scheme. For example, if NAV of mutual fund scheme is Rs. 10 and the investors have invested Rs. 5,000, 500 units will be allotted to the investor.
March 2020 was one of the worst months for equity market. Indian indices witnessed massive sell-off in line with global equities sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic and potential economic damage amid lock-down worldwide. Large cap based index, Nifty 50 dropped by over 23% and broad-based index, Nifty 500 fell by a little over 24%. Mid cap and Small cap benchmarks vis., Nifty Midcap 100 index fell over 30% and Nifty Smallcap 100 index dropped by over 36%.
