“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.
It’s been interesting times for the Nifty 50 in the past month! As we observed in the previous update, the Nifty 50 index remained bullish and managed to reach the first target of 18,640-18,700 zone that we had set. The index appears on course to reach even the second target of 19,100 mentioned in the outlook last month.
Sula Vineyards is launching an IPO worth Rs 960 crore, consisting solely of an offer for sale by investors including a 1% stake sale by the promoter. The offer for sale will result in approximately 32% of equity being sold by the selling shareholders with the promoter stake at ~28% post-issue. The issue opens on December 12 and closes on December 14. Shares are being offered at a price band of Rs.340-Rs.357 per share of face value Rs 2. This being an offer for sale, the company will not receive any funds from the issue.
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:
There is no dearth of stock market stories about the next HDFC bank or the next Page Industries or the next Dixon Technologies. In the recent IPO boom, this comparison went to the next level – comparing Indian companies with global giants.
But this kind of chasing the next big multi bagger, has seldom yielded rich dividends for investors.
At PrimeInvestor, we took an ultra-conservative approach to debt investments during Covid and just after it. But with economic recovery taking root, interest rates rising and credit offtake improving, we believe investors can shoot for higher yields by taking on some credit risk. Perpetual bonds from banks with sound financials are one option, offering good reward for risks taken. We are covering one such bond here.
Ask any new CFA pass-out what drives stock returns in the long run and he’ll likely tell you that is earnings, of course! Equity analysts spend many man (and woman) hours on excel sheets, trying to model the future earnings of companies, to identify stocks to bet on.
But if you look at the journey of multi-bagger stocks over any time period, you’ll find that there’s an X factor apart from earnings that drives multi-bagger returns.
Low interest rates and rising inflation are a dilemma for savers. There is a constant conflict between risk and return. As far as the retail investor is concerned, he looks forward to being ‘protected’ by the regulators. Financial literacy does not come easy and ninety percent of us would not know the difference between a fixed deposit and a debenture. And we would be forgiven in thinking that the term ‘secured’ debenture or bond means that every rupee we invest is safe! But where should we draw the line in the search for high interest rates?
A lot goes into making that piece of gold jewellery you see at your jewellers’. Or even the copper that goes into your two-and four-wheelers. The first step starts with mining these metal and mineral ores. The next is to crush the ore lumps into desired sizes and processing them in mills to extract the metal or mineral. This involves a lot of machinery such as crushers, screens and other mineral processing equipment. In mill equipment, there’s a critical component that protects the equipment to ensure longer life, reduce noise as well as downtime, and improve safety.
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.
It is the fashion for personal finance gurus and social media influencers to begin their talks by dissing FDs. FDs are dumb investments, they say, before urging you to migrate to equities, or exotic things like options trading or covered bonds.
But the humble fixed deposit can serve a very useful purpose in your portfolio by acting as a source of ready liquidity and acting as a bedrock for your safe money. That’s why we have Prime Deposits, our list of FD recommendations. It is quite possible to generate positive real returns on your FDs through an active strategy. But can an active strategy really go with FDs? Of course! Here’s how you can do it.
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