Vidya Bala
Founding Partner & Head, Research and Product
About Vidya
Vidya helped build one of the country’s earliest robo-advisory solutions in the country in her earlier role at FundsIndia. She believes in not just providing the right solutions for investors but also taking ownership for the same and following up or changing course when the situation warrants.
Vidya was the head of mutual fund research at FundsIndia where she did some path-breaking work in analysing funds and offering researched portfolios. Her recommendations had a sound track record of beating markets and showcasing consistency. They were followed widely by investors, advisors and media.
A Chartered Accountant by qualification, Vidya began her career as a Senior Internal Auditor for Ashok Leyland. She then went on to work for The Hindu Business Line’s Research Bureau, tracking mutual funds, stock markets, sectors and the macro economy for eight years. She has more than 18 years of experience, of which over 15 were spent analyzing the markets.
Vidya is known in the media for her straight talk and, calling out bad products.
Stay in touch
Vidya in the media
- One size fits all approach does not work for debt funds – LiveMint
- Big Truth about investing in Small Caps – The Hindu
- Why SEBI needs to strengthen rules to protect investors in debt mutual funds – Economic Times
- Why people are exiting their real estate investments – FundsIndia
- The debt funds spook and what it means – FundsIndia
Watch Vidya talk about her financial journey
Vidya's recent articles
Stock update: Results analysis on our niche capital goods pick
In September last year, we had given a Buy call on a unique capital goods player that has delivered in a tough market, that has picked up newer opportunities and has the potential to grow well. With the March 2022 quarter results out, markets have reacted.
Our response to your comments on our Axis fund call
We upset a few of you with our call on some of the Axis funds last week 😊 Some of you commented on the blog and others raised tickets. We thought it would be better for us to respond through an article for the benefit of others as well.
What to do with your Axis mutual funds?
Axis Mutual Fund issued a public notice removing and replacing two of its fund managers, Viresh Joshi and Deepak Agarwal, from seven of its schemes — Banking, Technology, Consumption, and Nifty ETFs and Axis Value, Quant and Arbitrage Funds. This move was accompanied by speculation that the managers were suspended on front-running charges. Axis Mutual Fund hasn’t explicitly mentioned front-running charges, but it has confirmed that it has been investigating “potential irregularities” with the help of external advisors.
Prime Fund Recommendation: A fund for the opportunist in you
Some funds have a clear fundamental strategy that shows in their portfolio construct. When that strategy pays off, they deliver. But many good-to-hear strategies have failed for many mutual funds in recent years. This is partly due to fast-shuffling sector preferences in the market and partly due to high stock weights in the index that funds struggle to replicate. As a result, you see them underperforming key indices.
How to avoid duplication in debt funds
As a result of having many categories, many of you end up having duplication in debt funds in your portfolio inadvertently – by believing that spreading across different categories, you’re diversifying. However, funds that may be in different categories but not necessarily doing anything different for your portfolio.
Prime Bonds: A privately placed bond with attractive risk-return pay off
Last week, we announced the beginning of our coverage of privately placed bonds. Today, we’re issuing the first of such calls. The private issuance of this unlisted bond was done on March 4, 2022 and it is now available as a secondary sale of privately placed bonds. Our report and recommendation here is on this secondary sale.