Shares and Mutual Funds-5

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Mutual Fund: A mutual fund is a pool of money, collected from investors, and invested according to certain investment objectives.

Asset Management Company (AMC): A company set up under Indian company’s act, 1956 primarily for performing as the investment manager of mutual funds. It makes investment decisions and manages mutual funds in accordance with the scheme objectives, deed of trust and provisions of the investment management agreement.

Back-End Load: A kind of sales charge incurred when investors redeem or sell shares of a fund.

Front-End Load: A kind of sales charge that is paid before any amount gets invested into the mutual fund.

Off Shore Funds: The funds setup abroad to channalise foreign investment in the domestic capital markets.

Under Writer: The organization that acts as the distributor of mutual funds share to broker or dealers and investors.

Registrar: The institution that maintains a registry of shareholders of a fund and their share ownership. Normally the registrar also distributes dividends and provides periodic statements to shareholders.

Trustee: A person or a group of persons having an overall supervisory authority over the fund managers.

Bid (or Redemption) Price: In newspaper listings, the pre-share price that a fund will pay its shareholders when they sell back shares of a fund, usually the same as the net asset value of the fund.

Schemes according to Maturity Period:

A mutual fund scheme can be classified into open-ended scheme or close-ended scheme depending on its maturity period.

Open-ended Fund/ Scheme

An open-ended fund or scheme is one that is available for subscription and repurchase on a continuous basis. These schemes do not have a fixed maturity period. Investors can conveniently buy and sell units at Net Asset Value (NAV) related prices which are declared on a daily basis. The key feature of open-end schemes is liquidity.

Close-ended Fund/ Scheme

A close-ended fund or scheme has a stipulated maturity period e.g. 5-7 years. The fund is open for subscription only during a specified period at the time of launch of the scheme. Investors can invest in the scheme at the time of the initial public issue and thereafter they can buy or sell the units of the scheme on the stock exchanges where the units are listed. In order to provide an exit route to the investors, some close-ended funds give an option of selling back the units to the mutual fund through periodic repurchase at NAV related prices. SEBI Regulations stipulate that at least one of the two exit routes is provided to the investor i.e. either repurchase facility or through listing on stock exchanges. These mutual funds schemes disclose NAV generally on weekly basis.

Schemes according to Investment Objective:

A scheme can also be classified as growth scheme, income scheme, or balanced scheme considering its investment objective. Such schemes may be open-ended or close-ended schemes as described earlier. Such schemes may be classified mainly as follows:

Growth / Equity Oriented Scheme

The aim of growth funds is to provide capital appreciation over the medium to long- term. Such schemes normally invest a major part of their corpus in equities. Such funds have comparatively high risks. These schemes provide different options to the investors like dividend option, capital appreciation, etc. and the investors may choose an option depending on their preferences. The investors must indicate the option in the application form. The mutual funds also allow the investors to change the options at a later date. Growth schemes are good for investors having a long-term outlook seeking appreciation over a period of time.

Income / Debt Oriented Scheme

The aim of income funds is to provide regular and steady income to investors. Such schemes generally invest in fixed income securities such as bonds, corporate debentures, Government securities and money market instruments. Such funds are less risky compared to equity schemes. These funds are not affected because of fluctuations in equity markets. However, opportunities of capital appreciation are also limited in such funds. The NAVs of such funds are affected because of change in interest rates in the country. If the interest rates fall, NAVs of such funds are likely to increase in the short run and vice versa. However, long term investors may not bother about these fluctuations.