MFs raise expenses for liquid funds
The Rs 9 lakh crore mutual fund (MF) sector has finally decided to increase the expense ratio for liquid schemes - which have attracted the largest amount of short-term money, of Rs 2.5 lakh crore - to 20 basis point (bps).
According to sector sources, the top 10-15 fund houses have come together and decided to charge 20 bps from February. "While there is no written understanding, we decided it's time, so that schemes do not incur losses," said the chief executive officer (CEO) of an MF who was part of these discussions. Many fund houses were charging as little as 2-5 bps in their liquid schemes. The decision comes at a time when liquid funds have been driving the sector's growth. As a recent CRISIL report noted, the assets of MFs rose to Rs 9.03 lakh crore in January, primarily because of the increase in liquid assets by 43 per cent or Rs 77,500 crore (total increase in assets was Rs 83,000 crore). Liquid or money market fu
Rupee falls to 5-month low, bond yields continue to rise
On Wednesday, the rupee ended at 61.5/dollar, a five-month low, compared with its previous close of 60.85/dollar, owing to increased demand for dollars after data showed the US was on a recovery path. There is concern the US might resort to raising interest rates sooner than expected, due to which emerging markets such as India will see outflows.
The rupee opened at 61.04/dollar and, during intra-day trade, touched a low of 61.53/dollar.
On March 5, it had closed at 61.76 a dollar. Since the beginning of this financial year, the currency has depreciated three per cent.
"On Wednesday, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) intervened through state-run banks, but in small volumes. There was not much dollar supply," said Sandeep Gonsalves, forex consultant and dealer, Mecklai & Mecklai.
RBI's foreign exchange reserves are only $23 million short of its all-time high of $320.79 billion, recorded on September
Lessons from the Satyam scam
The signs of the Satyam scam should have come almost three weeks before when Ramalinga Raju proposed to buy a controlling stake in sister concern Maytas for around Rs 7,000 crore. When the institutional investors opposed vehemently, the company decided to go against it. Three weeks later on January 7, Raju confessed to 'cooking' Satyam's books.
Within the next few days, the share price crashed to almost Rs 10 causing losses of over Rs 5,000 crore to around 300,000 investors. In the past five years, a number of companies have been suspended or fallen into bad times with Pyramid Saimira, Deccan Chronicle and Kingfisher Airlines being some of the more prominent examples.
Usually, in such situations, individual investors get caught on the wrong side even if they have invested in such stocks through mutual funds. Sample this: When Satyam declared that they are withdrawing the proposal to buy the controlling stake in Maytas, many brokerage
Comments
Post a Comment
You are requested to mentioned your full name with email id while commenting.