A Study on Growth of Mutual Funds in India

AUTHOR L.LAKSHMANAN RESEARCH SCHOLAR IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION SOURASHTRA COLLEGE, MADURAI -625004 Email: l.lakshmanan24@gmail.com Mobile: 96008 60836

CO-AUTHOR T.S.DEEPA RESEARCH SCHOLAR IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION SOURASHTRA COLLEGE, MADURAI -625004 Email: ts.deepa1@gmail.com Mobile: 98845 95200

A Study on Growth of Mutual Funds in India

Abstract
There has been growing importance of Mutual Fund Investment in India. When compared with other financial instruments, investments in Mutual funds are safer and also yields more returns on the portfolio investment. The focus of the study is to guide the retail investors to select the best and suitable mutual fund for investment. For retail investor who does not have the time and expertise to analyze and invest in stocks and bonds, mutual funds offer a viable investment alternative. The mutual fund industry in India has registered significant growth during the past decade or so, To fulfill the expectations of millions of account holders, The Mutual fund companies should promote financial awareness amongst the respondents so as to channelize their income and savings towards Mutual Funds. A team of professional fund managers manages them with in-depth research inputs from investment analysts.

Keywords: Mutual Funds, Investment Preferences, Companies, Types.

A Study on Growth of Mutual Funds in India

Introduction
Savings form an important part of the economy of any nation. With savings invested in various options available to the people, the money acts as the driver for growth of the country. Indian financial scene too presents multiple avenues to the investors. Though certainly not the best or deepest of markets in the world, it has ignited the growth rate in mutual fund industry to provide reasonable options for an ordinary man to invest his savings. Investment goals vary from person to person. While somebody wants security, others might give more weight age to returns alone. Somebody else might want to plan for his Childs education while somebody might be saving for the proverbial rainy day or even life after retirement. With objectives defying any range, it is obvious that the products required will vary as well. Growth of Mutual Funds Industry in India The origin of mutual fund industry in India is with the introduction of the concept of mutual fund by UTI in the year 1963. Though the growth was slow, but it accelerated from the year 1987 when non-UTI players entered the industry. The main reason of its poor growth is that the mutual fund industry in India is new in the country. Large sections of Indian investors are yet to be intellectuality with the concept. Hence, it is the prime responsibility of all mutual fund companies, to market the product correctly abreast of selling. The mutual fund industry can be broadly put into four phases according to the development of the sector. Each phase is briefly described as under. First Phase - 1964-87 Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament. It was set up by the Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the Reserve Bank of India. In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI. The first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964. At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs.6, 700 crores of assets under management ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Author: Prof. L.LAKSHMANAN Asst. Professor Department of Management Studies Sourashtra College Madurai Co-Author: Prof: T.S.DEEPA Asst. Professor Department of Management Studies Sourashtra College Madurai

Second Phase - 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds) Entry of non-UTI mutual funds. SBI Mutual Fund was the first followed by Can bank Mutual Fund (Dec 87), Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89), Indian Bank Mutual Fund (Nov 89), Bank of India (Jun 90), Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92). LIC in 1989 and GIC in 1990. The end of 1993 marked Rs.47,004 as assets under Third Phase - 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds) With the entry of private sector funds in 1993, a new era started in the Indian mutual fund industry, giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families. Also, 1993 was the year in which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being, under which all mutual funds, except UTI were to be registered and governed. The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered inJuly1993. Fourth Phase - since February 2003 In February 2003, following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated into two separate entities. One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets under management of Rs.29,835 crores as at the end of January 2003, representing broadly, the assets of US 64 scheme, assured return and certain other schemes. The Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India, functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations. The second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd, sponsored by SBI, PNB, BOB and LIC. It is registered with SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations. With the bifurcation of the erstwhile UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs.76,000 crores of assets under management and with the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund, conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations, and with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds, the mutual fund industry has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth. As at the end of September, 2004, there were 29 funds. Till March, 2008 assets under management was Rs.505152 crores under 421 schemes. . Types of Mutual Funds Schemes according to Maturity Period A mutual fund scheme can be classified into open-ended scheme or close-ended scheme depending on its maturity period. management.

Open-ended Fund An open-ended Mutual fund is one that is available for subscription and repurchase on a continuous basis. These Funds do not have a fixed maturity period. Close-ended Fund A close-ended Mutual fund has a stipulated maturity period e.g. 5-7 years. The fund is open for subscription only during a specified period at the time of launch of the scheme. Fund according to Investment Objective A scheme can also be classified as growth fund, income fund, or balanced fund considering its investment objective. Such schemes may be open-ended or close-ended schemes as described earlier. Such schemes may be classified mainly as follows: Growth / Equity Oriented Scheme The aim of growth funds is to provide capital appreciation over the medium to long- term. Such schemes normally invest a major part of their corpus in equities. Such funds have comparatively high risks. Income / Debt Oriented Scheme The aim of income funds is to provide regular and steady income to investors. Such schemes generally invest in fixed income securities such as bonds, corporate debentures, Government securities and money market instruments. Balanced Fund The aim of balanced funds is to provide both growth and regular income as such schemes invest both in equities and fixed income securities in the proportion indicated in their offer documents. Money Market or Liquid Fund These funds are also income funds and their aim is to provide easy liquidity, preservation of capital and moderate income. Gilt Fund These funds invest exclusively in government securities. Government securities have no default risk. Index Funds Index Funds replicate the portfolio of a particular index such as the BSE Sensitive index, S&P NSE 50 index (Nifty), etc .

Mutual Fund Companies in India ABN AMRO Mutual Fund ABN AMRO Mutual Fund was setup on April 15, 2004 with ABN AMRO Trustee (India) Pvt. Ltd. as the Trustee Company. The AMC, ABN AMRO Asset Management (India) Ltd. was incorporated on November 4, 2003. Deutsche Bank A G is the custodian of ABN AMRO Mutual Fund. Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund is the joint venture of Aditya Birla Group and Sun Life Financial. Sun Life Financial is a global organization evolved in 1871 and is being represented in Canada, the US, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia and Bermuda apart from India. Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (BOB Mutual Fund) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund or BOB Mutual Fund was setup on October 30, 1992 under the sponsorship of Bank of Baroda. HDFC Mutual Fund HDFC Mutual Fund was setup on June 30, 2000 with two sponsors namely Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited and Standard Life Investments Limited. HSBC Mutual Fund HSBC Mutual Fund was setup on May 27, 2002 with HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India) Private Limited as the sponsor. Board of Trustees, HSBC Mutual Fund acts as the Trustee Company of HSBC Mutual Fund. ING Vysya Mutual Fund ING Vysya Mutual Fund was setup on February 11, 1999 with the same named Trustee Company. It is a joint venture of Vysya and ING. Prudential ICICI Mutual Fund The mutual fund of ICICI is a joint venture with Prudential Plc. of America, one of the largest life insurance companies in the US of A. Prudential ICICI Mutual Fund was setup on 13th of October, 1993 with two sponsors, Prudential Plc. and ICICI Ltd. Sahara Mutual Fund Sahara Mutual Fund was set up on July 18, 1996 with Sahara India Financial Corporation Ltd. as the sponsor.

State Bank of India Mutual Fund State Bank of India Mutual Fund is the first Bank sponsored Mutual Fund to launch offshore fund, the India Magnum Fund with a corpus of Rs. 225 cr. approximately. Today it is the largest Bank sponsored Mutual Fund in India. Tata Mutual Fund Tata Mutual Fund (TMF) is a Trust under the Indian Trust Act, 1882. The sponsors for Tata Mutual Fund are Tata Sons Ltd., and Tata Investment Corporation Ltd. Benefits from investing in a Mutual Fund Small investments: Mutual funds help you to reap the benefit of returns through a portfolio spread across a wide spectrum of companies with small investments. Such a portfolio selection would not be possible by an individual investor. Professional Fund Management: Professionals having considerable expertise, experience and resources manage the pool of money collected by a mutual fund. They analyze markets and the economy to select good investment opportunities. Spreading Risk: An investor with a limited amount of fund might be able to invest in only one or two stocks / bonds, thus increasing his or her risk. However, a mutual fund will spread its risk by investing in a number of researched stocks or bonds, across sectors, so the risk is diversified, along with taking advantage of the position it holds. Also in cases of liquidity crisis where stocks are sold at a distress, mutual funds have the advantage of the redemption option at the NAVs (Net Asset Values). Transparency and easy access to information: Mutual Funds regularly provide investors with information on the value of their investments and also declare a daily NAV. Mutual Funds also provide complete portfolio disclosure of the investments made by various schemes and also the proportion invested in each asset type and clearly layout their investment strategy to the investor. Liquidity: Closed ended funds have their units listed at the stock exchange, thus they can be bought and sold at their market/traded value. As far as Open Ended Funds are concerned, the units can be bought and sold (redeemed) from /to the Mutual Fund directly as and when they announce the repurchase. Thus while an individual investor may get locked in to a particular investment in a stock and may not be able to withdraw from it when it is down, can do so in a mutual fund by simply redeeming his units with the mutual fund directly.

Choice: The large amount of Mutual Funds offers the investor a wide variety to choose from. An investor can pick up a MF scheme depending upon his risk / return profile. Regulations: All the mutual funds are registered with SEBI and they function within the provisions of strict regulation designed to protect the interests of the investor. Distributors or Advisors who advice investors on which mutual finds to invest in are also required to be compulsorily AMFI certified i.e. they are required to pass certain uniform tests that will ensure their knowledge and expertise to advise other people. Conclusion The financial growth of every individual in India depends upon the savings he/she makes for is future. When it comes to investments no second thought that investing in mutual fund is a better choice. With the structural liberalization policies no doubt Indian economy is likely to return to a high grow path in few years. Hence mutual fund organizations are needed to upgrade their skills and technology. Success of mutual fund however would bright depending upon the implementation of suggestions. References Anagol, Malati & Katoli, Raghavendra, Mutual funds: just five year old and ready to run at a gallop Economic Times, February 27, 1992. 2. Shukla, Sharad, Futual funds: past performance is no indicator of the future Economic Times, June 6, 1992, 3. De, Mainak, Futual funds & institutions - paying to a different tune Economic Times, June 15, 1991. 4. Dave, S. A., Futual Funds: Growth and Development" The Journal of the Indian Institute of Bankers, Jan-March, 1992. 5. Bhatt, M. Narayana, Setting standards for investor services" Economic Times, December 27, 1993. 6. State Bank of India, Monthly Review, August 1991, December 1991. 7. Marketman - Vol.1 June 1992. 8. Business India, October 15-26,, 1990, 9. Vyas, B.A., Mutual funds - Boon to the Common Investors" Fortune India, July 16, 1990. 10. Chandra, Prasanna, The investment Game Tata Mc.Graw-Hill publishing, New Delhi 11. Yasaswy, N.J. PersonaI Investment and Tax Planning year Book

Vision Books, New Delhi.