PrimeInvestor - Articles and Reports

cryptocurrencies
Short Takes
Srikanth Meenakshi

Investing in Cryptocurrencies

Occasionally, we get questions at PrimeInvestor about investing in cryptocurrencies. Unsurprisingly, these questions arrive at a higher frequency when these currencies are trading higher and

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prime stock
Stocks
PrimeInvestor Research Team

Stock recommendation: A solid company, a sharp fall, a great opportunity

Fears about a second wave of Covid more virulent than the first, have triggered a fresh bout of panic selling in the market. Stocks that may take a direct hit on their revenues and profits as a result of this have seen a correction. We think this presents a window of opportunity to add select high-quality stocks to your portfolio. We are providing a recommendation on one such stock that has seen a 21% correction from its peak in March.

Premium article available only to subscribers.

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fmp
Mutual funds & ETFs
Vidya Bala

3 reasons why you should not rollover your FMPs now

A recent addendum by Aditya Birla Sun life suggested that investors rollover some of the AMCโ€™s FMPs that are maturing. The reason was that given the low-rate scenario, investors are unlikely to get good interest rates outside once they exit. And that staying invested would provide indexation benefit for capital gains and earn higher returns.
But some investors raised the doubt on whether the FMPs under question were in trouble. We therefore looked at their portfolios. They had high-quality AAA-holdings are unlikely to have had any pressure on repayment. In other words, there does not appear any credit related rollover compulsion.

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Franklin funds
Mutual funds & ETFs
PrimeInvestor Research Team

Should you exit from ALL Franklin funds now?

Many of our customers have written to us asking whether they should continue with the Franklin Templeton funds that they hold. People are worried not just about debt funds, but about the future of their equity funds as well. These worries are not misplaced given recent developments at the fund house.
As readers of this space know, we have been tracking the performance of this fund house from a time well before the crisis relating to the decision to wind up six debt schemes unfolded. So, for us here at PrimeInvestor, this question of what to do with your holdings is not tough to answer.

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EPF changes
General
Aarati Krishnan

Confused about recent EPF changes? Hereโ€™s what you need to know

If thereโ€™s one thing that governments love to do with their annual Budgets, it is to confuse ordinary folk with rule changes that have plenty of the fine print. This time, the change that has set off a confusing debate has been the budget proposal to limit the tax breaks on the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), the favourite retirement savings vehicle for many salary-earners. So, what changed for EPF subscribers in the 2021 Budget? Has the government now relaxed those provisions in the Finance Bill? What is the government trying to do to the EPF overall and should you be looking at alternatives to it? We answer these questions and many more here.

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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 SEBIโ€™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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monika halan
General
Srikanth Meenakshi

Monika talks money

A good way to gauge the state of personal finance books that are India-centric would be to visit the โ€˜Bookโ€™ section of Amazonโ€™s India website.

If you go to the American Amazon.com, you will find the โ€˜Business and Moneyโ€™ section, under which you will find โ€˜Personal Financeโ€™. Boom, done – you have access to a treasure trove on all topics PF.

If you go to the Indian Amazon.in, you will find a โ€˜Business and Economicsโ€™ section, and under that, you will find โ€˜Analysis and Strategyโ€™, โ€˜Economicsโ€™, and โ€˜Industriesโ€™. If you, by power of logical reasoning and elimination, go into the first category, you will find, along-side books about American personal finance and self-help (Dale Carnegie!), a smattering of books by Indian authors to help Indian investors.

A handful, at best.

No doubt, this is an emerging section, but the current state of limited selection is properly captured by just browsing through these aisles.

Monika Halanโ€™s โ€˜Letโ€™s talk moneyโ€™ is, especially in this context, a much-needed publication that addresses a sore need in the Indian market.

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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, thereโ€™s a lot of talk on yield movements both at home and in the US, thereโ€™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.

Weโ€™ve written extensively on the developments in the debt space in different articles. But hereโ€™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 โ€“ 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 โ€˜roll down strategyโ€™ or a strategy where a maturity date is fixed thereby ensuring that the portfolioโ€™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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