Investments includes economy, asset classes and portfolio construction.

Bond markets: issues and implications

This post collates some of the issues being highlighted by experts regarding the Indian corporate bond markets, and the implications for debt mutual funds. Debt funds are risky… Suyash Choudhary, head of fixed interest at IDFC AMC, outlines the market structure and issues – The macro Markets for financing in India Behavioural thinking and operating
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Global investment consultants eyeing India?

India has been wooing foreign investments, both directly as foreign direct investments (FDI) into companies as well as indirectly as ‘foreign institutional investors’ (FIIs) or ‘foreign portfolio investors’ (FPIs) into its capital markets and alternative investment funds (AIFs). FIIs already hold a significant portion of India’s listed equity market, affecting daily market fluctuations. However, the
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Share buy-backs in India

A share buyback means a company buys their own shares from the market when they want to reduce their number of shares available in the open market. Share buyback in India – legal provisions In India, buyback of listed shares was permitted by the Companies (Amendment) Act, 1999 by the insertion of Sections 77A, 77AA
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Factor investing 101

Factor investing 101

Global markets are made up of dozens of asset classes and millions of individual securities, making it challenging to understand what really matters for your portfolio. But, there are a few important drivers that can help explain returns across asset classes. These ‘factors’ are broad, persistent drivers of return that are critical to helping investors
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how to analyse mutual funds

How to analyse MF portfolio and performance

Investors see lists of ‘top performing’ mutual funds that have performed well over both long-term and short-term horizons. But will they do so in the future? Researchers believe that good mutual funds have clearly stated investment styles that specify whether the fund manager will invest in large or small companies, whether those companies exhibit growth or value characteristics etc. We
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Differential voting rights in India – a summary

What are DVRs? Dual Class Shares (DCS) or shares with Differential Voting Right (DVR) as popularly known in India, simply mean that a company has issued more than one class of stocks with different voting rights. In other words, DVRs are shares that give the holder different voting rights compared to someone who owns ordinary
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Does ETF liquidity matter for investors?

The Indian asset and wealth management industry laments the lack of liquidity in ETFs, encouraging investors to buy passive funds instead. But what is liquidity and does it matter? In the recent past, two papers have been issued to address this topic – The CFA Society India issued a report on ETFs generally with some recommendations
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Do you need an investment philosophy?

Recently, I was invited to participate in a panel discussion on the ‘Art & Science of Stockpicking’. I was fascinated by the topic because I had studied both art and science (actually literature and biology) at undergraduate level and then had chosen finance as a career. I had researched investing somewhat (remember this was 25
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Fund categorisations: confusing segments and style

The Indian media has been discussing SEBI’s circular on categorisation and rationalisation of mutual funds ever since it came out in October 2017. I had written about the need for better fund classifications last year, so I didn’t comment further. But the news that AMFI has asked SEBI to reconsider has prompted me to share
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Can better fund research fix capitalism?

“We have met the enemy and he is us.” — Walt Kelly We blame capitalism for most of our modern ills, from climate change to iPhones that die every two years. Yet we rarely bother to read the sales pitch our accountant, banker, or adviser gives us for the mutual funds to invest our hard-earned
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Has goal-based investing ruined Modern Portfolio Theory?

Modern or mean-variance portfolio theory (MPT) is an important financial concept. But it has little practical value for retail investors when it to comes to asset allocation. Recently, goals-based investing has grown popular with both financial advisers and robo-advice tools. Financial advisers continue to apply an ‘”asset allocation overlay” check to ensure goals-based portfolios are
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What can blow up in your portfolio?

That’s the question investors should ask when assessing portfolio risk, rather than focusing on volatility. Speaking at a speaker event organised by Indian Association of Investment Professionals (IAIP), Raj Manghani, the Managing Director – Financial Analytics for MSCI, explained scenario analysis and stress testing. Testing the ability of a portfolio to withstand shocks in liquidity, markets and
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Classifying funds

Investment decisions rely on performance of funds universe including that of the median and various quartiles. Hence, the universe category definitions and classifications are very important. Unfortunately, AMCs have multiple funds in the same category with significant dispersion in returns. To make it worse, leading rating houses have different classification methodologies resulting in different classifications.
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Funds research…deconstructed

I love watching cooking shows. It doesn’t matter that I don’t cook. I watch for enjoyment sake, and perhaps for the comfort of knowing that in a cooking emergency, I will be able to put something together. One concept that I always get fascinated by is that of ‘deconstructed’. Chefs separate or deconstruct the ingredients
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Why we need active funds

The active versus passive debate rages on. The passive camp points out that active funds, in general, don’t do what they are supposed to do – outperform the passive benchmark. They charge high annual management fees, even in the years they underperform. They encourage intermediaries to charge fees or commissions to select amongst them (or
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Why good mutual fund research is hard to find

There are many brilliant books on stock picking, from simple beginners’ guides to classic textbooks like Ben Graham’s Security Analysis and The Intelligent Investor. I could find only one credible book on mutual funds: John Bogle’s Common Sense on Mutual Funds. Bogle’s advice? Investors should put their money in index funds. A number of finance luminaries — Warren Buffett,
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Why you shouldn’t invest in 5-star rated mutual funds

Ask any investor how they select mutual funds (MF) – the most common answer tends to be on the basis of star ratings. Such is the allure of stars that it doesn’t appear to matter whose stars. I know so, because I spent my career in fund research. And no matter how different my firm’s
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Role of financial ratings

When people hear the leader of a country comment on how a credit rating agency should rate its debt, they realise credit ratings are important. When they read about the role of credit ratings in the global financial crisis, they get angry about the finance industry being responsible for their misery, but figure they must
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How Nobel prize winners invest

Everyone in finance would know about the efficient frontier… it’s a concept from Modern Portfolio Theory put forward by Harry Markowitz in the 1950s. So Markowitz is like God in the world of portfolio management. I was always curious about how Markowitz invests his own portfolio. Imagine my delight when I found the answer in

Making sense of too many products

Like in many other markets, the mutual fund industry the world over seems to have a dazzling choice of products, but with the top few dominating assets under management and inflows. In the US, there are more funds than stocks. Even in a nascent market like India, there are more than 1,000 choices, and that’s
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Fund managers need the right temperament

What kind of people make good fund managers? While everyone should be interested in this question, there is surprisingly little research on this topic. Dr Jack Gray talks to Hansi Mehrotra about his efforts and findings. While the general perception may be that investments is about numbers, investment professionals everywhere agree that money management is
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Valuing real estate

Subhankar Mitra of Jones Lang LaSalle explains the basic methodologies used for real estate valuations in India. Valuations are very important in any private equity/real estate investing not only while buying and selling but also for ongoing reporting. Hence, it’s important to understand how valuations work in India. 1. What qualifications does one need to
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Intro to Modern Monetary Theory

Being a professor in risk management, Professor Frank Ashe had to explain the biggest risk event in recent history – the global financial crisis. He went back to basics to understand the genesis of the credit bubble, in the process discovering Modern Monetary Theory and how government deficits are not as bad as people think.
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Role of credit rating agencies

Credit rating agencies have been criticized for their role in the 2007 sub-prime crisis, which led to the global financial crisis, but it wasn’t until a recent lawsuit exposed their internal emails that it became clear to what extent they were responsible. While the global financial crisis can’t be blamed on any one in particular,
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Forget track records for responsible investing

The United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment now claims over 550 signatories with more than USD 18 trillion in assets. UNPRI provides a framework for institutional investors to integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into investment processes. Also, the International Finance Corporation has sponsored a study on the prevalence of RI in emerging markets.
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