Investment is time, energy, or matter spent in the hope of future benefits actualized within a specified date or time frame. Investment has a different meaning in finance from that in economics. In finance, investment is buying or creating an asset with the expectation of capital appreciation, dividends (profit), interest earnings, rents, or some combination of these returns.
Mutual funds announce the investment objective for every scheme they float, and seek investments from the public. When a scheme is open for investment for a limited period, initially, it is called a New Fund Offer (NFO). Depending on how it is structured, the scheme may be open to accept money from investors only during the NFO (closed-end scheme), or it may accept money post-NFO too (open-end scheme).
The investment that an investor makes in a scheme is translated into a certain number of 'Units' in the scheme. Thus, an investor in a scheme is issued units of the scheme. For example, if an investor has invested Rs. 1,000 in units issued at Rs10, he will be entitled to Rs. 1,000 ÷ Rs. 10 i.e. 100 units
The purchase of units by the investor from the scheme is also called subscription. Refund of money to the investor by the scheme is called redemption.
Under the law, every unit has a face value of Rs10. (However, older schemes in the market may have a different face value). The face value is relevant from an accounting perspective. The number of units multiplied by its face value (Rs10) is the capital of the scheme – its Unit Capital.
The scheme earns interest income or dividend income on the investments it holds. Further, when it purchases and sells investments, it earns capital gains or incurs capital losses. These are called realized capital gains or realized capital losses as the case may be.
Investments owned by the scheme may be quoted in the market at higher than the cost paid. Such gains in values on securities held are called valuation gains or unrealised gains. Similarly, there can be valuation losses or unrealised losses, when securities are quoted in the market at a price below the cost at which the scheme acquired them.
The practice of marking securities to their market value is called marked to market (MTM) valuation. The true worth of each unit of every scheme i.e. its Net Asset Value (NAV) is calculated based on MTM valuation of the investment portfolio. Thus, it captures all the gains and losses, realised and unrealised. Under the regulations, MTM is to be done daily. This is the principal reason the NAV of the scheme fluctuates, even if there is no change in the investments held in the portfolio of the scheme.
A fall in the security values in the market at the end of a day can cause a drop in NAV; the following day, if the market recovers, the NAV too will recover. Thus, while NAV of mutual fund schemes fluctuate, the fluctuation is of little relevance to a long term investor; the investor's actual returns depend on the price at which he buys or sells the units of the scheme, and the dividend he receives from the scheme during the period he holds the units. Running the scheme entails costs viz. scheme running expenses. The expenses pull down the profits of the scheme and the NAV of the units. This brings down the returns for the investors. Therefore, SEBI has restricted the expenses that can be charged to mutual fund schemes.
Following are the additional advantages of investing in a Mutual Fund :
Units of a scheme give investors exposure to a range of securities held in the investment portfolio of the scheme. Thus, even a small investment of Rs5,000 in a mutual fund scheme can give investors a diversified investment portfolio. With diversification, an investor ensures that all his eggs are not in the same basket. Even if some investments in the scheme portfolio lose money, other investments in the portfolio can make up for the loss. Thus, diversification helps reduce the risk in investment. In order to achieve the same diversification as a mutual fund scheme, investors will need to set apart much higher amount. Instead, they can achieve the diversification through an investment of very low amount in a mutual fund scheme.
The pooling of large sums of money from so many investors makes it possible for the mutual fund to engage professional managers to manage the investment operation and underlying risks. Individual investors with small amounts to invest cannot, by themselves, afford to engage such professional management. Large investment corpus leads to various other economies of scale. For instance, costs related to investment research and office space get spread across investors. Further, the higher transaction volume makes it possible to negotiate better terms with brokers, bankers and other service providers. SEBI has fixed a limit on the brokerage that the schemes can pay on their purchases and sales of securities in the market. Similarly, there is a cap on the total expenses of every scheme.
At times, investors in financial markets are stuck with a security for which they can't find a buyer; worse, at times they can't find the company they invested in! Such investments, whose value the investor cannot easily realise in the market, are technically called illiquid investments and may result in losses for the investor. Investors in a mutual fund scheme can recover the market value of his/her investment, from the mutual fund itself. Depending on the structure of the mutual fund scheme, this would be possible, either at any time (open-end schemes), or during specific intervals (interval fund), or only on closure of the scheme (closed-end schemes). Closed-end schemes are listed in a stock exchange. Thus, before the scheme matures, the investor can sell the units in the stock exchange to recover the prevailing value of the investment.
The options offered under a scheme viz. growth and IDCW, allow investors to structure their investments in line with their liquidity preference and tax position.
The Know-Your-Customer (KYC) requirements are centralised across the capital markets, including mutual funds. Therefore, based on a single KYC process, investors can invest across the capital market in shares, debentures, mutual funds etc. Further, once an investment is made with a mutual fund, the investor can make further purchases with very little documentation. This simplifies subsequent investment activity.
Mutual funds also offer facilities that help investor invest regularly through a Systematic Investment Plan (SIP); or withdraw amounts regularly through a Systematic Withdrawal Plan (SWP); or move moneys between different kinds of schemes through a Systematic Transfer Plan (STP). Such systematic approaches promote an investment discipline, which is useful in long term wealth creation and protection.
SEBI has mandated strict checks and balances in the structure of mutual funds and their activities
Mutual Funds are classified as Open-end, Closed-end and Interval Funds
Open-end schemes are open for investors to enter or exit at any time, even after the NFO. Although some unit-holders may exit from the open-end scheme, wholly or partly, the scheme continues operations with the remaining investors. The scheme does not have any kind of time frame in which it is to be closed
Closed-end funds have a fixed maturity. Investors can buy units of a closed-end scheme, from the fund, only during its NFO. The fund makes arrangements for the units to be traded, post-NFO in the stock exchange/s. This is done through a listing of the scheme in one or more stock exchanges. Such listing is compulsory for closed-end schemes
Interval funds combine features of both open-end and closed-end schemes. They are largely closed-end, but become open-end during pre-specified time periods. For instance, an interval scheme might become open-end between January 1 to 15, and July 1 to 15, each year. The benefit for investors is that, unlike in a purely closed-end scheme, they are not completely dependent on the stock exchange to be able to buy or sell units of the interval fund. There is a transaction period (January 1 to 15 and July 1 to 15, in this example), when both subscription and redemption may be made to and from the scheme. Transaction period has to be of minimum 2 working days, as per SEBI Regulations. The gap between two successive transaction periods (January 15 to July 1, in this example) is called interval period. The minimum duration of an interval period is 15 days. Subscription and redemption is not permitted during the interval period.
Funds are further classified on the basis of their management style - Actively Managed Funds and Passive Funds
Actively managed funds are funds where the fund manager has the flexibility to choose the investment portfolio, within the broad parameters of the investment objective of the scheme.
Passive fund invests on the basis of a specified index, whose performance it seeks to track. Thus, a passive fund tracking the S&P CNX Nifty or BSE Sensex would buy only the shares that are part of the composition of that index. The proportion of each share in the scheme's portfolio would also be the same as the weightage assigned to the share in the computation of the index.
The index, on which a passively managed scheme is constructed, is called its benchmark. Similarly, even active schemes have a benchmark – a standard against which scheme performance can be compared. A benchmark is announced when every scheme, active or passive, is launched.
Finally the schemes are classified on the basis of their Asset Class : Equity, Debt & Hybrid Funds
A scheme might have an investment objective to invest largely in equity shares and equity related investments like convertible debentures such schemes are called equity schemes.
Schemes with an investment objective that limits them to investments in debt securities like Treasury Bills, Government Securities, Bonds and Debentures are called debt funds or income funds.
Hybrid funds have an investment charter that provides for a reasonable level of investment in both debt and equity.
Scheme performances are judged by lot many factors but a common investor can judge the scheme primarily with its past returns and also on the basis of the assigned benchmarking
Following are the assigned benchmarks for various scheme in Mutual Fund :
| # | Benchmark | Relevant for (Type of scheme) | Published By |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | S&P CNX Nifty | Diversified equity | National Stock Exchange |
| 2 | Sensex | Diversified equity | Sensex Bombay Stock Exchange |
| 3 | Mumbai Inter-bank Offered Rate (MIBOR) | Liquid | National Stock Exchange |
| 4 | Liquid Fund Index (Liquifex) | Liquid | Crisil.com |
| 5 | Composite Bond Fund Index (Compbex) | Income / Debt | Crisil.com |
| 6 | Balanced Fund Index (Balance Ex) | Balanced | Crisil.com |
| 7 | MIP Index (MIPEX) | MIP | Crisil.com |
| 8 | Short Maturity Gilt Index (Si-BEX) | Gilt schemes of short maturity | ICICI Securities |
| 9 | Medium Maturity Gilt Index (Mi-BEX) | Gilt schemes of medium maturity | ICICI Securities |
| 10 | Long Maturity Gilt Index (Li-BEX) | Gilt schemes of long maturity | ICICI Securities |
| 11 | Composite Gilt Index | Composite gilt schemes | ICICI Securities |