Sports many caps

Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund has launched the MoSt Focussed Multicap 35 Fund. At any given point the fund will invest at least 65 per cent of its assets in equities and can invest up to 10 per cent in foreign securities. The fund will be managed by Taher Badshah and will be open for subscription until April 17, 2014.

Bank on this

Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund has launched its Banking and PSU Debt Fund. The scheme will invest in the debt and money market instruments issued by banks and companies owned by the Government. Given the low default risk for such instruments, this scheme suits investors with a low risk appetite. The fund will be managed by Umesh Sharma and Sachin Padwal-Desai. Its performance will be benchmarked to CRISIL Composite Bond Fund Index. If the scheme interests you, buy it at par value (₹10 a unit) on or before April 16, 2014. In case you miss it now, it being an open ended scheme, buy it after April 28 when it re-opens for sale and re-purchase.

Thumbs up for equity

The Sensex and Nifty are hitting new highs but most investment professionals in India believe there’s lot more steam left. Over 70 per cent of the 431 financial service professionals who participated in a recent survey conducted by the Indian Association of Investment Professionals (IAIP) predict equity to be the best performing asset class in the next one year. Over 83 per cent of those surveyed expect the BSE Sensex to give positive returns and trade above the current 22,000 by March 2015.

According to them, policy initiatives by a new, stable government at the Centre will help equities outperform other asset classes — fixed income, gold, commodities and real estate. But they expect India’s GDP growth to be in the 5-6 per cent range in FY15. CPI inflation is expected at 7-8 per cent for this fiscal.

Out flows the money

The mutual fund industry saw a record outflow of ₹1.09 lakh crore in March. According to the Association of Mutual Funds in India, liquid funds saw the highest outflow of ₹1.17 lakh crore followed by equity funds, which witnessed redemption of over ₹2,100 crore for the month. Investors in gilt and balanced funds too were in profit booking mode. But income funds as an exception saw inflow of over ₹7,800 crore in March.

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