06-05-2011, 04:57 PM
PRESENTED BY
ANSARI SHEEMAN AHMED
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NEED FOR THE STUDY:
The main purpose of doing this project was to know about mutual fund and its functioning. This helps to know in details about mutual fund industry right from its inception stage, growth and future prospects.
It also helps in understanding different schemes of mutual funds. Because my study depends upon prominent funds in India and their schemes like equity, income, balance as well as the returns associated with those schemes.
The project study was done to ascertain the asset allocation, entry load, exit load, associated with the mutual funds. Ultimately this would help in understanding the benefits of mutual funds to investors.
OBJECTIVE:
To give a brief idea about the benefits available from Mutual Fund investment.
To give an idea of the types of schemes available.
To discuss about the market trends of Mutual Fund investment.
To study some of the mutual fund schemes.
To study some mutual fund companies and their funds.
Observe the fund management process of mutual funds.
Explore the recent developments in the mutual funds in India.
To give an idea about the regulations of mutual funds.
LIMITATIONS
• The lack of information sources for the analysis part.
• Though I tried to collect some primary data but they were too inadequate for the purposes of the study.
• Time and money are critical factors limiting this study.
• The data provided by the prospects may not be 100% correct as they too have their limitations.
• The study is limited to selected mutual fund schemes.
EXECUTIVE SUMMERY
A mutual fund is a scheme in which several people invest their money for a common financial cause. The collected money invests in the capital market and the money, which they earned, is divided based on the number of units, which they hold.
The mutual fund industry started in India in a small way with the UTI Act creating what was effectively a small savings division within the RBI. Over a period of 25 years this grew fairly successfully and gave investors a good return, and therefore in 1989, as the next logical step, public sector banks and financial institutions were allowed to float mutual funds and their success emboldened the government to allow the private sector to foray into this area.
The advantages of mutual fund are professional management, diversification, economies of scale, simplicity, and liquidity.
The disadvantages of mutual fund are high costs, over-diversification, possible tax consequences, and the inability of management to guarantee a superior return.
The biggest problems with mutual funds are their costs and fees it include Purchase fee, Redemption fee, Exchange fee, Management fee, Account fee & Transaction Costs. There are some loads which add to the cost of mutual fund. Load is a type of commission depending on the type of funds.
Mutual funds are easy to buy and sell. You can either buy them directly from the fund company or through a third party. Before investing in any funds one should consider some factor like objective, risk, Fund Manager’s and scheme track record, Cost factor etc.
There are many, many types of mutual funds. You can classify funds based Structure (open-ended & close-ended), Nature (equity, debt, balanced), Investment objective (growth, income, money market) etc.
A code of conduct and registration structure for mutual fund intermediaries, which were subsequently mandated by SEBI. In addition, this year AMFI was involved in a number of developments and enhancements to the regulatory framework.
The most important trend in the mutual fund industry is the aggressive expansion of the foreign owned mutual fund companies and the decline of the companies floated by nationalized banks and smaller private sector players.
Reliance Mutual Fund, UTI Mutual Fund, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, HDFC Mutual Fund and Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund are the top five mutual fund company in India.
Reliance mutual funding is considered to be most reliable mutual funds in India. People want to invest in this institution because they know that this institution will never dissatisfy them at any cost. You should always keep this into your mind that if particular mutual funding scheme is on larger scale then next time, you might not get the same results so being a careful investor you should take your major step diligently otherwise you will be unable to obtain the high returns.
INTRODUCTION OF MUTUAL FUND
There are a lot of investment avenues available today in the financial market for an investor with an investable surplus. He can invest in Bank Deposits, Corporate Debentures, and Bonds where there is low risk but low return. He may invest in Stock of companies where the risk is high and the returns are also proportionately high. The recent trends in the Stock Market have shown that an average retail investor always lost with periodic bearish tends. People began opting for portfolio managers with expertise in stock markets who would invest on their behalf. Thus we had wealth management services provided by many institutions. However they proved too costly for a small investor. These investors have found a good shelter with the mutual funds.
CONCEPT OF MUTUAL FUND:
A mutual fund is a common pool of money into which investors place their contributions that are to be invested in accordance with a stated objective. The ownership of the fund is thus joint or “mutual”; the fund belongs to all investors. A single investor’s ownership of the fund is in the same proportion as the amount of the contribution made by him or her bears to the total amount of the fund.
Mutual Funds are trusts, which accept savings from investors and invest the same in diversified financial instruments in terms of objectives set out in the trusts deed with the view to reduce the risk and maximize the income and capital appreciation for distribution for the members. A Mutual Fund is a corporation and the fund manager’s interest is to professionally manage the funds provided by the investors and provide a return on them after deducting reasonable management fees.
The objective sought to be achieved by Mutual Fund is to provide an opportunity for lower income groups to acquire without much difficulty financial assets. They cater mainly to the needs of the individual investor whose means are small and to manage investors portfolio in a manner that provides a regular income, growth, safety, liquidity and diversification opportunities.
DEFINITION:
“Mutual funds are collective savings and investment vehicles where savings of small (or sometimes big) investors are pooled together to invest for their mutual benefit and returns distributed proportionately”.
“A mutual fund is an investment that pools your money with the money of an unlimited number of other investors. In return, you and the other investors each own shares of the fund. The fund's assets are invested according to an investment objective into the fund's portfolio of investments. Aggressive growth funds seek long-term capital growth by investing primarily in stocks of fast-growing smaller companies or market segments. Aggressive growth funds are also called capital appreciation funds”.
Why Select Mutual Fund?
The risk return trade-off indicates that if investor is willing to take higher risk then correspondingly he can expect higher returns and vise versa if he pertains to lower risk instruments, which would be satisfied by lower returns. For example, if an investors opt for bank FD, which provide moderate return with minimal risk. But as he moves ahead to invest in capital protected funds and the profit-bonds that give out more return which is slightly higher as compared to the bank deposits but the risk involved also increases in the same proportion.
Thus investors choose mutual funds as their primary means of investing, as Mutual funds provide professional management, diversification, convenience and liquidity. That doesn’t mean mutual fund investments risk free.
This is because the money that is pooled in are not invested only in debts funds which are less riskier but are also invested in the stock markets which involves a higher risk but can expect higher returns. Hedge fund involves a very high risk since it is mostly traded in the derivatives market which is considered very volatile.
