PrimeInvestor - Articles and Reports

perpetual bonds
Mutual funds & ETFs
Vidya Bala

What to do if your MF holds perpetual bonds?

Perpetual bonds have caused some sleepless nights for fund managers after SEBI’s circular earlier this month. On March 10th, SEBI issued a circular capping the debt scheme exposure to perpetual bonds at 10% and also laying down new rules how these bonds should be valued in debt scheme portfolios. We wrote a short take on it last week suggesting that you wait for clarity. SEBI has now come up with one more circular offering some clarification.

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debt funds
Mutual funds & ETFs
Bhavana Acharya

Which debt funds to hold now and other questions, answered

Debt funds are back to worrying many of you. Returns are dipping, there’s a lot of talk on yield movements both at home and in the US, there’s the question of where rates will head now. Over the course of the past several weeks, we have fielded several questions from you on what this means and what you should be doing with your debt funds.

We’ve written extensively on the developments in the debt space in different articles. But here’s answering the questions that appear to worry you the most.

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target maturity
Mutual funds & ETFs
Vidya Bala

2 target maturity government bond fund NFOs – Should you invest?

Target maturity funds invest with a stated maturity and pay you back when the maturity is reached. You can call them an FMP but one that is open-ended and takes fresh inflows and outflows.
With yields beginning to move up, more funds are now beginning to talk about ‘roll down strategy’ or a strategy where a maturity date is fixed thereby ensuring that the portfolio’s average maturity steadily falls as it nears maturity. For example, a 2027 target date fund will have a 6-year maturity now and a 5-year maturity in 2022 and so on, until the maturity reduces to near zero in 2027.

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Recommendations
Vidya Bala

Prime Recommendation: 2 Debt funds to limit current market volatility

For those of you spooked by the continuing volatility in debt funds, our earlier article would have explained why these ups and downs prevail now. If you have money to be deployed or profits booked out of equities and waiting in the sidelines, you may hesitate to deploy it in this debt market condition.
To speak the truth, there are no categories other than overnight and liquid that are spared from the current volatility. However, if one looks at it on a relative basis, select funds from ultra-short, low duration and money market have held on, notwithstanding the see-saw.

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debt funds
Mutual funds & ETFs
Vidya Bala

Why your debt funds have negative returns and what to do

Most of you are now comfortable with the fact that gilt funds can deliver negative returns in the short to medium term when rates move up. We have also written about it here. But the negative return prevalent in the past month or so, across most debt fund categories has troubled many of you.

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Mutual funds & ETFs
Bhavana Acharya

Should you invest in balanced advantage funds now?

If you watched any cricket in the past few days, you could not have missed the ad from a prominent fund house, extolling the virtues of (their) balanced advantage funds. Whether its AMCs, fund managers, media, or your neighbour, the advice is that the best way to manage current markets is to add a balanced advantage/dynamic asset allocation fund to your portfolio. Should you?

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debt fund
Recommendations
Vidya Bala

Prime Recommendation: A debt fund for the new rate scenario

Two events have set the stage for a rise in yields, whether the RBI pauses or hikes rates. One, a few weeks ago, the RBI closed the tap that pumped liquidity into the system. That meant no more excess supply of money. This caused an immediate rise in short-term yields, causing mark-to-market losses in some funds over a week or two. In just 2 months, the 3-month government bond moved from 2.9% in December beginning to 3.36% now. This is a sharp move for a shorter tenure bond.
Two, Budget 2021 has decided to retain its market borrowing at Rs 12 lakh crore, same as the pandemic-hit year. It has also provided many novel measures to tap the debt market for infrastructure financing. The 10-year gilt yields climbed sharply as the budget was announced.

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Mutual funds & ETFs
Bhavana Acharya

Prime Recommendation – An ETF for uncertain markets

The Nifty 50 has rallied 16% in 1 year, the Nifty 50 PE is breaking past peaks, and you’re worried that this may be the end of the party and that you may miss further rallies if it isn’t the end. In uncertain markets like these, there’s a great option to both contain losses and generate returns.

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Mutual funds & ETFs
Vidya Bala

Outlook 2021 – Equity

The Nifty 50 has rallied 84% (March 2020 lows to Dec-20) in just nine months and the rally has been driven mainly by a global

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Bonds & Deposits
Aarati Krishnan

Outlook 2021: Debt & Gold

Forecasting is a tricky business and 2020 showed how Black Swans flying at you out of nowhere can make you look foolish. But looking back at the debt outlook and strategy we recommended a year ago, we’re glad we erred on the side of caution.

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Prime Funds
Mutual funds & ETFs
PrimeInvestor Research Team

2020 – How our Prime Funds performed

For us here, at PrimeInvestor, it’s time to evaluate ourselves and see how we did and how our recommendations fared. And the primary yardstick we use to do so is to see how our Prime Funds performed, with respect to benchmarks and category averages.
In the stock market, even as the year closed out with gains, it is better classified as an abnormal year driven by liquidity. Such markets can be deceptive. It is best not to draw long-term lessons from this year! In the debt market, we saw policy rates crash below earlier floors. Returns soared for some categories, other funds fell to credit risks.

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