PrimeInvestor - Articles and Reports

NFO Review - HDFC Defence Fund
Mutual funds & ETFs
Bhavana Acharya

NFO Review: HDFC Defence Fund

If thereโ€™s one NFO thatโ€™s trying to be a hop out of the regular, it is the HDFC Defence Fund. And with good reason โ€“ the defence space has been garnering increasing attention in stock markets with defence plays rallying. This open-ended thematic fund opens for subscription today.

HDFC Defence will be the only fund on the defence theme, making it differentiated from other sector offerings. Thereโ€™s also no denying the scope in the defence sector, especially after key changes in defence capex spending which focuses on indigenous procurement. So, can this NFO make a good portfolio addition?

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The many facets of front-running and insider trading
Markets
R Balakrishnan

The many facets of front-running and insider tradingย 

SEBI (Securities Exchange Board of India) has levelled charges of front-running against two big institutions that may Indians are invested with โ€“ LIC and Axis Mutual Fund. Front running and its close cousin – insider trading – were quite widely prevalent in the days of yore, before SEBI drafted elaborate regulations to keep such practices at bay. But what do todayโ€™s investors need to know about these malpractices? Hereโ€™s an explainer.

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Prime fund recommendation - a beaten down sector to pick up now
Mutual funds & ETFs
Vidya Bala

Prime Fund Recommendation: A beaten-down sector to pick up now

Getting into a sector when the going is rough can pay off as kinks get ironed out and prospects look up. The complexity of this sector, along with other factors, has led to steep underperformance against the Nifty 50. But with more clarity now emerging on sustainable growth from here as well as a shift in the contours of the sector, this may be an opportune time to build up exposure to this beaten-down sector.

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4 metrics to choose the best index funds and ETFs
Mutual funds & ETFs
Aarati Krishnan

4 Metrics to choose the best index funds and ETFs

โ€œWhich equity fund should I buy?โ€ When asked an open-end question like this, most financial experts recommend an index fund. Choosing an index fund is supposed to be far easier than choosing an active fund from the hundreds of schemes. But the number and variety of index funds in India has mushroomed too. There are about 94 open-end equity index funds, while over 120 equity Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are listed on the exchanges. So, if youโ€™re thinking of buying an index fund, how do you choose the right one? Here are four metrics to choose the best index funds and ETFs.

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Prime Fund Recommendation: A multi-asset fund for long-term portfolios
Mutual funds & ETFs
Bhavana Acharya

Prime Fund Recommendation: A multi-asset fund for long-term portfolios

Multi-asset allocation funds as a category are not easy to use. With funds in the category having the freedom to swing drastically between asset classes, the aspects to consider range from how asset allocation calls are taken, how much the allocation changes, whether this translates into returns, and finally what the taxation is going to be.

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Whats firing up gold prices and what you can do about it.
Gold
Aarati Krishnan

Whatโ€™s firing up gold prices and what you can do about it

After lying low for a while, gold as an asset class has woken up from its long slumber in the last six months. International gold prices, which fell by 3.3% in 2021 and 0.3% in 2022, have gained 9% so far in 2023 (as of April 11) and are up by 20% in the last six months. In India, gold prices recently bounced off a lifetime high of over Rs 61,000/10 grams, having gained 18% in the last six months. This recent run has made investors sit up and take notice of sovereign gold bonds, gold ETFs and other vehicles to own gold. But should you jump on the bullion bandwagon now?

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Quarterly Review - changes to recommendations in Prime Funds and Prime ETFs
Mutual funds & ETFs
PrimeInvestor Research Team

Quarterly review โ€“ Changes to recommendations in Prime Funds and Prime ETFs

Prime Funds is our list of recommendations in equity, debt, and hybrid mutual funds that are worth investing in. Prime Funds narrows down your choices from the thousands of funds that there are, into a concise list of funds that span different styles. Prime Funds are selected based on performance, portfolios, and investment strategies.

In this quarterโ€™s review, we have made limited additions to our list of Prime Funds but have some updates to give on performance of the existing funds. We also suggest buckets that are worth entering now. So do read it!

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Tax changes in mutual funds: How to manage your investments now
Mutual funds & ETFs
PrimeInvestor Research Team

Tax changes in mutual funds: How to manage your investments now

Changes in tax rules at the end of a financial year is not something that you routinely expect. And not when it is a sweeping change on taxation in your mutual fund! In this article, we are going to discuss the tax changes in mutual funds in 4 parts:
One, the changes effective April 1, 2023 and the categories impacted
The tax impact for you and what you can do to plan better
What should you do with your existing investments?
How should you plan your fresh investments?

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Low returns from debt funds? know how to manage this risk
Mutual funds & ETFs
Aarati Krishnan

Low returns from debt funds? Know how to manage this risk!

Low returns from debt funds? Know how to manage this risk!
After Silicon Valley Bank revealed large losses on its US bond portfolio that had eaten into its capital, thereโ€™s been a lot of social media outrage. Some folks are shocked that banks can make losses on a cast-iron investment such as US treasuries. Others seem to be appalled that Silicon Valley Bank is not alone and that many other global banks are in the same boat. This shows that investors at large have only a vague understanding of what rising interest rates do to bond portfolios.
You have also been bombarding us with questions on how interest rate risks can play out for debt funds, particularly target maturity, constant maturity and gilt funds. We try to address them here.

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Debt funds for double indexation and high returns
Mutual funds & ETFs
Bhavana Acharya

Debt funds for double indexation and high returns

If there is one thing that has dominated the new fund offer space, and your collective interest, it is target maturity funds. Over the past year, the debt market has dealt with a swift rise in interest rates and we have issued multiple strategies to alert you on opportunities that presented themselves.

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Nifty Next 50 - what should you do with your investments?
Mutual funds & ETFs
PrimeInvestor Research Team

Nifty Next 50 – what should you do with your investments?

The Nifty Next 50 houses the 50 top companies by market capitalisation, after the Nifty 50. This index caught the limelight over the past month for featuring a handful of the Adani group stocks.

As we had pointed out a couple of weeks ago in our write-up on Adani stocks and index funds, the presence of a few shaky stocks in an index is not reason enough to exit it. But even before the Adani-fuelled upheaval, the Nifty Next 50โ€™s once-outstanding performance was being eroded.

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4 easy steps to picking good mutual fund schemes
Mutual funds & ETFs
Vidya Bala

4 easy steps to picking good mutual fund schemes

The top-used product at PrimeInvestor, our MF Review Tool, is good for anyone who wants to know our call on your fund (buy/hold/sell) and the reason for the same. It also helps you pick the funds we have a buy on, if you want to go beyond Prime Funds.
But for those of you who want to see the evidence backed by data or wish to do your own filtering, then Prime MF Screener is the only tool available today in town for you to do this evidence-based investing. If you are a subscriber โ€“ well, whatโ€™s stopping you from empowering yourself using our MF Screener to pick good mutual fund schemes?

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