The close of another year means that it’s the time we review how our recommendations have done. We published our Prime Stocks report card a few days ago. In this instalment, we cover Prime Funds performance in 2022
“Why are the so-called expert investors in India so disinterested in ESG funds?”. A young investor asked me this question at a recent event and it gave me food for thought. It is true that at PrimeInvestor, we are not fans of ESG investing either. We don’t go out of our way to cover ESG funds or ‘green’ bonds and deposits, unless they offer great returns.
As far as investment products go, ULIPs (short for Unit Linked Insurance Products) have the reputation of being the ‘bad boys’. While investor wariness toward ULIPs in their earlier avatar was justified, they have evolved since their pre-2010 days following changes made by IRDAI. However, ULIPs have still not entirely managed to shake off their reputation. In this article, we pit the present day ULIP vs. mutual funds – and compare them on parameters such as their function, how they invest your money, liquidity, expenses and tax treatment and see how they stack up.
The Reserve Bank’s monetary policy on Wednesday served up another repo rate hike of 35 basis points, adding to the 190 basis points through this year. That takes the repo rate to 6.25% from the Covid low of 4%. The key driving factor behind the rapid rate hikes – that of inflation – still remains. The RBI has clearly spelt its commitment to bringing inflation within the target range, even in its latest monetary policy.
In this light, debt fund strategies you have now, to make the most of the current scenario, can be decided based on what you want:
A few weeks ago, we had written in detail the categories in which we think passive funds have become a necessity to keep your portfolio returns stable; even if you hold active funds. We made this call as performance of active funds were becoming relatively more inconsistent, in a few key categories.
In any portfolio that features equity funds, the long-running debate is whether one should go for active or passive funds. We, on the other hand, have held that a portfolio can well feature both active and passive funds using each where it does best. Of late, we have also been of the opinion that there are some categories where you should have passive funds if you are to keep returns up – even if you hold outperforming active funds.
For investors who can write a single cheque of Rs 50 lakh or more, Portfolio Management Services (PMS) have emerged a popular vehicle for investment into equities. In effect, PMS is identical to investing directly in shares, the main difference being that you have given absolute power to the PMS agency to buy/sell shares on your behalf and your portfolio choices are left to them.
Prime Portfolios are a set of 19 unique portfolios that meet over 30 different investor timeframes and needs. Prime Portfolios are listed under Ready-to-use-portfolios in the Recommendations dropdown. These portfolios primarily use mutual funds, but where there are better-suited products such as deposits or government schemes, the portfolios include those as well.
Prime Funds narrows the choice of the thousands of funds out there in the market into a list of 50-60 funds that you can pick from to invest. This quarter we have made some additions to gain from the renewed strength that the equity market is exhibiting, the recession fears in the US notwithstanding. There are some additions in the debt space as well, as yields moved up.
A few weeks ago, we’d launched a new tool on our platform – the mutual fund overlap tool. This tool shows you how much two funds or three funds have in common between them. But how exactly should you use this overlap information? When is overlap high? What should you do if your funds share a high overlap? Or why is overlap even important?
Lately, it is not just India’s stock market that has been hopping all over the place like an impatient child. The bond market has been doing it too! India’s 10-year government bond yield, which sets the benchmark for all other debt instruments, climbed vertically from 5.8% in July 2020 to 7.61% in June 2022. But after that, it has been unable to make up its mind on whether to climb higher or pause for breath.
When it comes to building long-term portfolios with debt, many of you are confused about which funds to use. Should it be corporate bond funds or gilt funds or credit risk funds? To choose these or a combination of these, you need to first know the difference in the characteristics of these fund categories.
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