Reliance Money has launched an online magazine “Money Advisor” on mutual funds as a part of its investor education drive, it is reported.

The magazine aims to cover the mutual fund industry, latest trends in AUMs, overview and recommendations on equity and debt funds, said reports.

Mr Sudip Bandyopadhyay, CEO and Director, Reliance Money, was quoted saying that investor education was important for the company. Money Advisor would be mailed to all the customers and distributors of Reliance Money, said reports.

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Fortis India, the Indian mutual fund arm of Belgian-Dutch financial group Fortis, has appointed Mr Sameer Narayan as Head of Equity and Mr Alok Singh as Head of Fixed Income, it is reported.

They replace Mr K C Reddy, who quit as Chief Investment Officer of the company in November. Mr Narayan has been managing Fortis’s funds since September 2006 and Mr Singh since February 2005. Both of them have more than a decade experience in the financial services sector, said reports.

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Reliance Mutual Fund has been named the country’s best fund house for 2008 by Hong Kong-based journal Asia Asset Management, it is reported. The publication tracks institutional fund markets in the Asia Pacific region.

Asia Asset Management was to have reported that the Anil Ambani group entity Reliance Capital Asset Management Company, which manages Reliance MF schemes, has the largest fund house in India in terms of assets shown growth in expansion of its domestic and international franchise.

The publication has also named Mr Vikrant Gugnani, CEO of Reliance Mutual Fund from October 2005 to December 2008, as the best CEO in the MF industry. Currently, he is CEO of International Business of Reliance Capital.

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Media reports say that mutual fund industry might make less collections through its tax plans in the March quarter because of weak stocks and deep losses in 2008.

Money managers have not had a steady flow of equity assets, which earn maximum fees of about 100 basis points.

Mr Vinay Shukla, Senior Vice President, Mutual Funds, India Infoline, was quoted saying that the collections would be less this year because people have lost jobs; they don’t have surpluses and they already have a high exposure to equity.

In last three financial years, tax funds received more than half their annual collections in the March quarter, said media reports, quoting Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) data. The March quarter is the favourite time of the year for launches and promotions.

This year, all three new equity funds open for initial subscription are tax-planning mutual funds from firms such as Bharti AXA, DBS Cholamandalam and Tata Asset Management, said the report.

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IDFC Mutual Fund has launched IDFC India GDP Growth Fund, an open-ended equity scheme, which aim at generating long term capital appreciation by investing in equity and equity related instruments, said a press release.

The scheme aims to capture the growth in India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It would represent the growth in GDP by capturing the growth in the constituents of the GDP. The scheme will also invest in debt and money market instruments. The new fund offer period (NFO) is open for subscription from January 28 to February 26, 2009. The face value of the new issue is Rs 10 per unit, said the release.

The scheme offers growth and dividend options. The dividend option will have reinvestment facility. The minimum investment amount is Rs 5,000 and in multiples of Re 1 thereafter. The scheme will charge an entry load of 2.25 per cent for investment amounts less than Rs 5 crore. The scheme will charge one per cent exit load for redemption within one year from the date of allotment.

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Benchmark Mutual has launched the first Shariah Benchmark Exchange-traded scheme in India. It’s an open-ended listed index scheme, it is reported.

The scheme will be benchmarked against the S&P CNX Shariah index, launched by Standard & Poor’s and India Index Services & Products. Each unit is priced at 1/10th of the S&P CNX Nifty. The scheme will open for subscription on February 4 and close on February 25, 2009, said reports.

The S&P CNX Shariah index comprises stocks that are Shariah compliant. So the fund will not invest in business activities related to pork, alcohol, gambling, financials, advertising and media, except newspapers, pornography, tobacco and trading of gold and silver.

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The Mutual Fund industry’s assets under management (AUM) have risen by about 9.5 per cent in January when compared with the figures for December 2008, it is reported.

This rise comes after a series of downfalls witnessed in the last quarter of 2008. AUMs had risen by around 5 per cent in December 2008, said reports.

The industry now has an asset base of Rs 4,60,949 crore. LIC Mutual Fund is once again the biggest AUM gainer in percentage terms. Its assets are up by more than 30 per cent since last month to Rs 18,731 crore. Its AUM had earlier reported a rise of more than 23 per cent for December 2008..

Other AMCs that have recorded significant rise of more than 10 per cent in assets include IDFC, DWS Investments, Birla Sun Life, Tata, Principal, ICICI Prudential and Kotak.

Reliance continues to be the largest player with an asset base of Rs 76,168 crore, followed by HDFC at Rs 51,420 crore. For the third position, ICICI Prudential has once again overtaken UTI to be the third largest fund house in the country. It has reported an increase of about 13.5 per cent in its AUM which currently stands at Rs 47,515 crore as against UTI’s Rs 46,161 crore, it is reported.

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With the downturn in the economy, open-ended funds are proving problematic to seasoned fund managers as they are faced with the pressure of redemptions; investors exiting from the fund.

Open-ended MFs allow investors to exit at any point, so fund managers keep higher levels of cash for redemptions. While top close-ended equity diversified funds have grossed (-) 44 per cent in the last one year, top open-ended funds have registered (-) 33 per cent in the same time. Mr Prateek Agrawal, Head of Equity, Bharti AXA Investment Managers, was quoted saying, that the reason for this could be optimal design for open funds; open-ended funds have to be prepared for both inflows and outflows.

Industry analysts were reported saying that it was the usual practice for fund managers in open-ended schemes to keep 15 to 20 per cent of assets in cash and cash-related instruments to meet redemptions. Open funds keep more cash so they have lower exposure to midcaps and small-caps and hence less illiquid stocks, said reports.

Another fund manager was quoted saying that a good number of fund houses of close-ended schemes invested in small and mid-cap themes or infrastructure/construction stocks. These stocks were known to hold long-term potential but are were among the most illiquid stocks.

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Debt funds investing in government securities tumbled in January on rising bond yields.

Nine out of every ten actively-managed stock funds fell more than the benchmark share index, said media reports, quoting from data provided by fund tracker Lipper.

Gilt funds, investing in government bonds, recorded a 4.15 per cent drop in their net asset values on average; their worst monthly performance on record, said reports.

Yields on India’s most actively traded government securities, which matures in 2018, rose 92 basis points in January due to supply concerns, after falling 254 basis points in 2008, it is reported.

Analysts have said that with higher Government spending and a financial crunch, strained government finances will push up borrowing and keep the pressure on bond yields despite a series of aggressive rate cuts by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

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