Sunday, December 28, 2014

Bond Funds - Invest for at least 3 Years

Download Tax Saving Mutual Fund Application Forms

Invest In Tax Saving Mutual Funds Online

Buy Gold Mutual Funds

Leave a missed Call on

94 8300 8300

Bond Funds - Invest for at least 3 Years

Retail investors, even those who have invested in debt mutual funds, haven't had it too bad in 2014. With average returns of almost 16 per cent for the one- year category, these schemes have been the top performer in the debt segment this year. And expectations of a benign interest rate environment in the coming year might help them to perform better in the coming year as well.

Fund managers have already started increasing the maturity of their papers.

But to get best results from your debt investments, remember to stay invested for at least three years.

The reason: Under new tax laws, you will be taxed at the rate of individual slab, if you withdraw before three years whereas after three years, you will be taxed at 20 per cent with indexation.

The inflation indexation benefit is substantial.

There are two kinds of benefits from bond funds - gains from interest income and capital appreciation.

The longer the holding period, the higher the contribution of interest income to the total returns.

Interest rates and bond prices are inversely proportional to each other. When interest rates fall, bond prices rise and when interest rates rise, bond prices fall.

In the current scenario, with interest rates expected to decline, duration funds should do well.

The biggest risk of investing in these schemes is high volatility.

Long duration bond funds are more volatile than short- term bonds. So, the longer one stays invested, the easier it is to ride out the volatility.

Due to this volatility, experts advise that while these instruments are good for the portfolio, limit the exposure to 10- 15 per cent. Retail investors should not allocate aggressively to these funds.

The biggest risk with investing in such funds is that the interest rate cycle might not play out as expected.

Analysts have been expecting the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to cut rates for the past one year now, but the central bank has maintained a status quo.

If interest rates do not fall, or if the rate cut is not to the extent as it is being anticipated, one can expect volatility to increase in these funds.

In the past, fund managers have caught on the wrong foot by the apex bank.

Last July, several fund managers had increased the average maturity period of their long- duration funds, anticipating a fall in interest rates.

However, the strategy backfired, as RBI unexpectedly raised interest rates as part of its liquidity tightening measure and returns of some income and gilt medium- and- long- term debt funds declined three- four per cent on a single day.


For further information contact Prajna Capital on 94 8300 8300 by leaving a missed call

Leave a missed Call on 94 8300 8300

Leave your comment with mail ID and we will answer them

OR

You can write back to us at

PrajnaCapital [at] Gmail [dot] Com

---------------------------------------------

Invest Mutual Funds Online

Invest Any Mutual Fund Online

Download Mutual Fund Application Forms from all AMCs

Download Mutual Any Fund Application Forms

---------------------------------------------

Best Performing Mutual Funds

    1. Largecap Funds Invest Online
      1. DSP BlackRock Top 100 Fund
      2. ICICI Prudential Focused Blue Chip Fund
      3. Franklin India Bluechip
      4. ICICI Prudential Top 100 Fund

B. Large and Midcap Funds Invest Online

      1. ICICI Prudential Dynamic Plan
      2. HDFC Top 200 Fund
      3. UTI Dividend Yield Fund
      4. Birla Sun Life Front Line Equity Fund
      5. Franklin India Prima

C. Mid and SmallCap Funds Invest Online

      1. Reliance Equity Opportunities Fund
      2. DSP BlackRock Small & Midcap Fund
      3. Sundaram Select Midcap
      4. IDFC Premier Equity Fund
      5. Birla Sun Life Dividend Yield Plus
      6. SBI Emerging Businesses Fund
      7. HDFC Mid-Cap Opportunities Fund
      8. ICICI Prudential Discovery Fund

D. Small and MicroCap Funds Invest Online

      1. DSP BlackRock MicroCap Fund
      2. Franklin India Smaller Companies

E. Sector Funds Invest Online

      1. Reliance Banking Fund
      2. Reliance Banking Fund
      3. ICICI Prudential Banking and Financial Services Fund

F. Tax Saver Mutual Funds Invest Online

1. ICICI Prudential Tax Plan

2. HDFC Taxsaver

      1. DSP BlackRock Tax Saver Fund
      2. Reliance Tax Saver (ELSS) Fund

G. Gold Mutual Funds Invest Online

      1. Relaince Gold Savings Fund
      2. ICICI Prudential Regular Gold Savings Fund
      3. HDFC Gold Fund
      4. Birla Sun Life Gold

H. International funds Invest Online

1. Birla Sun Life International Equity Plan A

2. DSP BlackRock US Flexible Equity

3. FT India Feeder Franklin US Opportunities

4. ICICI Prudential US Bluechip Equity

5. Motilal Oswal MOSt Shares NASDAQ-100 ETF

0 comments: