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“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of intelligent effort”
— John Ruskin, English writer and critic

Usually, when someone speaks about the quality of life, they refer to the quality of sleep, meals, exercise and work-life balance. The better invested they are in the above factors, the higher their quality of life can be. And, when someone describes the quality of the city they live in, they attribute it to the quality of infrastructure, housing, conveyance and the overall standard of living.

When investing in mutual funds, it's recommended to review your investment portfolio periodically. During such a portfolio review, the primary objective would be to identify mutual fund schemes that aren't performing well, and replace them if needed.

The investment portfolio may contain assets from different fund houses and across various Demat accounts. This is where a Consolidated Account Statement comes into the picture.

The Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) is an industry association dedicated to nurturing and developing the Indian Mutual Fund Industry professionally and ethically. To protect and promote the interest of the mutual fund industry, Asset Management Companies (AMCs), and investors, AMFI aims to enhance and maintain professional standards for the AMCs and distributors through the Code of Conduct.

A type of mutual fund or exchange-traded fund, index funds are designed to follow certain pre-set rules. They are passive strategies, wherein the objective of the fund is to replicate the performance of underlying indices such as the Sensex, Nifty 50 or Nifty Next 50.

UTI Value Opportunities Fund is an open-ended equity scheme that follows a value investment strategy. The Fund follows the principle of intrinsic value — instead of the traditional multiple-based definition of value for portfolio management. Intrinsic value is ‘the discounted value of cash generated by a business during its remaining life’. The Fund has a flexible approach in terms of investing across the market cap spectrum based on available opportunities.

Investors can choose from various mutual fund schemes depending on their financial goals, risk appetite, and investment horizon. Diversifying one's investment portfolio to achieve better stability in a volatile market is always advised. Besides equity and debt instruments, commodity funds help investors diversify their portfolios across different asset classes.

Commodity funds: Meaning

Investing may be considered more of an art than a science. Amidst a wide range of investment options, products may be selected basis individual risk profiles, financial goals and investment horizons. Within an investment portfolio, the focus should also be on diversification and optimal asset allocation.

Diversification of investment portfolio across different asset classes

Rate action: The monetary policy committee today voted 5-1 to raise the policy repo rate by 35 bps to 6.25%, in line with the market expectations. The external member Prof. Jayant Varma dissented against the decision & voted against the rate hike. The policy corridor floor, the Standing Deposit Facility (SDF) rate, was also hiked by 35 bps to 6.00%, while the ceiling Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate was hiked to 6.50%.

TDS stands for Tax Deducted at Source. As the name suggests, this tax is deducted by the income payer (deductor) while  making a payment to the deductee. Such taxes are taken from the total amount payable by the payer and deposited with the Income Tax Department. The person paying the income and deducting the TDS is called the deductor, while the person receiving the income and on whose behalf the tax has been deducted is called the deductee.

While discussing the valuations of markets in general and stocks in particular, the most commonly used tool is undeniably a Price Earnings multiple (PE multiple). A PE multiple is a short-hand for the valuation process — not valuation per se — and no one should fail to make that distinction. The good thing about multiples is that they save time. However, they also incorporate a lot of economic assumptions that need to be unpacked for investors for them to accurately understand their meaning.

Dissecting the earnings multiple