Page 2 - Hurst Exponent News Today

There is no change in the list this month as all schemes have retained their place in the list. Watch out for our monthly updates to ensure your schemes are faring well.

According to the Sebi mandate, small cap schemes must invest in companies that are ranked below 250 in terms of market capitalisation. These schemes also will have to invest at least 65% in small cap stocks. Small companies go through many ups and downs - more than the established companies in the large and mid cap segments.

As per Sebi norms, mid cap schemes are mandated to invest in companies that are between 101 and 250 in the market capitalisation. These companies can be leaders of tomorrow. Thats what makes them great bets. If these companies live up to the promise, the market will reward the investors handsomely.

According to the Sebi mandate, large cap mutual funds are mandated to invest in top 100 companies by market capitalisation. Large companies fare better in a volatile market as these companies may be market leaders and resilient to downturns. That is why if you are looking for a relatively safer mutual fund category, you should consider investing in large cap funds.

Kotak Dynamic Bond Fund, one of the recommended schemes, has been in the third quartile in the last month. ICICI Prudential All Seasons Bond Fund has been in the second quartile in the last month.

Most mutual fund investors stick to liquid funds, ultra short term funds, short term funds, banking & PSU funds, corporate funds, etc. to take care of their short-term needs. Most of them might know about gilt funds. Even though they may not invest in them.

These schemes invest in both short term bonds and very short term instruments. They invest in treasury bills, commercial papers, certificates of deposits and so on to take care of their liquidity needs. They also invest in corporate bonds, government securities, etc.

According to Sebi norms, medium to long term funds have a mandate to invest in debt and money market instruments in such a way that the Macaulays duration of the portfolio is four to seven years.

Gilt funds are not recommended to regular debt investors because they are risky and volatile. Gilt funds suffer the most when the rates go up. The bond prices and yields move in opposite directions. When the rates go up, bond prices come down. This drags down the NAVs of schemes.

These schemes invest at least 80% of their corpus in the papers of the highest-rated companies. This makes them relatively safer than other debt schemes such as credit risk funds. They are also safer than gilt funds and long term debt funds that are highly sensitive to interest rate changes in the economy.