Monday, November 26, 2018

Tata Small Cap Fund: NFO review - RupeeIQ


Tata Mutual Fund launched a new fund in October 2018 called the Tata Small Cap Fund. This fund closed on 2nd November. This fund is announced to be benchmarked against the Small Cap 100 TRI Index. This index is maintained by Nifty for the stocks of companies with small market capitalizations. The surprising thing is that Tata Mutual Fund, which has been around for several years now, never had a fund dedicated solely to small cap funds.

Before we get into the pros and cons of this fund, let us take a quick look at its basic structure. It is a growth plan which offers dividend options as well. You can invest in it directly (through direct plan) or through an agent (regular plan). The minimum investment amount is Rs. 5000 and in multiples of Re. 1 thereafter. It doesn’t carry any entry load, but there is an exit load of 1% of NAV (on the day of redemption) if the investor is exiting within
2 years of the investment.


Given the background of the last year, an investor’s first thought might be about the fall in most small cap and mid cap funds in this year. But according to the fund manager, Mr. Chandraprakash Padiyar, the time is now right to get into small caps, owing mainly to how low their valuations are at present. Mr. Padiyar has a number of years of experience with UTI AMC and Alchemy before he joined Tata Mutual Funds.

It is also useful to take note of the fact that SEBI has now mandated that the small cap universe would start after the 250 th company in the market (in terms of market capitalization). As a result of this re-categorization, many stocks which were earlier categorized as midcap would now be labelled as small cap, thereby increasing the universe from which this fund could select its investments.

Typically, small cap stocks belong to companies which are starting off on their journey and have a long distance to cover in terms of growth. Their stock prices also reflect this same opportunity for growth, which is why Tata Mutual Fund is hoping for great returns on this fund, because 65% of its corpus would be invested in small cap stocks. The outlook for small caps is also positive because of the continuous corrections they have seen for more than a
year, which makes their present valuations very attractive.

The biggest advantage of this fund is that unlike the existing funds in the small cap segment, this fund is much smaller in size. This is likely to make it more flexible and better placed to draw good returns. The older funds in this space look a bit unwieldy because of the size they have grown to. This seems to be one of the strong points of this fund.

Sunday, November 25, 2018

5 Best Credit Cards in India: Compare & Apply Online

When you need a new credit card, you can simply log on to the bank’s website from the comfort of your home and apply for a credit card online. Your CIBIL score should be upwards of 700, and you must be able to show a proof of salaried or business income. Additionally, your KYC documents proving your identity and address would be required. But before all of this, you need to compare the different options available. Let us tell you our pick of the best five credit cards in India in 2018.

1. American Express Gold Card – This card is costlier than most others but loaded with features. You pay Rs. 1000 as joining charges and Rs. 4500 annual fees. There is no spend limit on this card, and you just need to repay the monthly outstanding by due date. If you can use it thrice within the first 2 months, you get a whopping 4000 reward points. You can redeem your reward points with high quality jewellery.

2. HDFC Bank Moneyback Card – This card is structured differently from the others on this list, and you need to pay no joining fees or annual fees. Yet the rewards structure is no less than other cards – you get 2 reward points for every Rs. 150 spent, and the points can be redeemed at the rate of Rs. 40 for every 100 points. If you spend online using this card, then you get three times the reward points as spending at point of purchase.

3. State Bank of India Simply Save – You pay just Rs. 499 as joining charges for this card which is accepted at establishments and ATM machines worldwide. You can use it to make payments for your point of sale (POS) purchases, and also to withdraw money from ATM machines. Your first ATM withdrawal using this card would earn Rs. 100 cashback for you. The POS usage provides 4 reward points for every rupee spent, and a fuel surcharge of 2.5%. In case you are making a big spend using this card, you can also convert the outstanding to a monthly repayment arrangement.

4. Standard Chartered Manhattan Platinum – This card has a joining fee of Rs. 999 only. Every time you use this card for a purchase of Rs. 150 at shops, you get 5%cashback to your card. You are eligible for three times the reward points at other locations. Apart from these features on this card which are available throughout the year, Standard Chartered also announces special cash back offers and other discounts from time to time.

5. ICICI Bank Coral Card – This card carries a very low joining fee of Rs. 199, but the first year you do not need to pay the usual annual fees that other cards charge. Whether it is shopping, movies or refuelling of vehicles, this card has some sweeteners for all these three purchases that you usually do. Fuel payments give you 2.5% cashback, dining out provides up to 15% savings, and for 2 movie tickets every month, there is a discount of Rs. 100.

Friday, November 16, 2018

India's Oldest Mutual Fund Schemes

Instead of a single person buying shares of certain company, a mutual funds allows many
investors to pool their resources and have a common buying/holding strategy for the funds
so collected. The income generated by such investments is again distributed among all
investors in the ratio of the units of the mutual fund held by them.

While the US and European stock exchanges began much earlier and have evolved much
faster, the mutual fund industry in India began as late as 1963. The first asset management
company was Unit Trust of India (UTI), which was jointly formed by the Government of India
and the Reserve Bank of India. They were the only player in the field for more than two
decades. In 1987, India’s largest bank, the State Bank of India, branched out into mutual
funds. Again there was a lull for more than 5 years, when SEBI allowed private players to
come up with mutual fund offerings, and within the next 3 years, our regulator, SEBI, came
up with the necessary regulations for mutual funds.
Most of the mutual funds introduced in those decades have closed down, but there are still
a few old mutual funds which are still going strong. For each of these funds, if you had
invested in a monthly SIP of Rs. 5000, then you would have seen your investment value rise
to anywhere between Rs. 1.5 to Rs. 2 crores. Here is a brief introduction to five of these old
mutual funds:

  • HDFC Equity Fund: HDFC was one of the first private players in this space, and this fund was one of their earliest offerings in 1995. The reason for it still being so popular is that it has given an average compounded annual return of more than 23% in the last two decades.
  •  Franklin India Prima Fund: This fund was started even earlier, in 1993. It still remains one of the most popular mutual funds of Franklin Templeton. In the last year, the returns have been an impressive 14.66%. It has an average assets under management (AUM) of almost Rs. 6000 crores.
  • Reliance Vision Fund: This fund was also launched in 1995. A good asset allocation process and a competent fund manager has helped it provide almost 20% annual returns in this period. In recent years the fund did see some volatility and lowered returns, but it has again begun to bounce back now.
  • Tata Large Cap Fund: This fund was christened the Tata Pure Equity Fund when it was launched in 1997. It is a large cap fund which has still managed to give more than 21% returns in these 2 decades. The fund targets good returns in the medium to long term, and 100% asset allocation is in the stocks of large-cap blue-chip companies.
  •  ICICI Prudential Long Term Equity: This is the youngest fund in this list, and was launched in 1999. True to its name, it has done well in the long term. But its returns in the last 10 years have been around the 13% mark.
Get more information about our articles by visiting us at: https://www.rupeeiq.com/content/indias-oldest-mutual-fund-schemes-give-18-21-annualised-returns-since-launch/

Sunday, November 4, 2018

Benefits of A Zero balance Savings Account of Axis Bank

A zero balance account can save the account holder the hassle of having to keep the required balances throughout the month and quarter. Axis Bank has become one of the leading banks of the country in less than 3 decades. It
offers the whole gamut of asset and liability products. In the savings accounts portfolio they
have a zero balance savings account as well. The zero balance savings account of Axis Bank
is called ASAP (which is an acronym for As Soon As Possible). Before we see what the
benefits of this account are, let us understand what zero balance savings accounts are.
A bank incurs several expenses when you open an account with it. Most of the specific
expenses are recovered by it in the form of charges and fees, like debit card annual fees,
ATM usage , cash withdrawal etc. For all the other expenses, and to make the account
profitable for the bank, another system has been put in place by banks. They require
account holders to maintain a minimum monthly average balance (MAB) or quarterly
average balance (QAB). These amounts are the respective sums of the daily closing balances
over the month or the quarter, divided by the number of days in the month or quarter.
While most banks have the minimum requirements of MAB and QAB, the zero balance
accounts are those which do not have any such conditions.
A zero balance account can save the account holder the hassle of having to keep the
required balances throughout the month and quarter. It provides increased liquidity to the
account holder and also allows him to juggle his expenses better without missing out on any
deadlines or dates on account of having to maintain a certain balance. And if the zero
balance account also offers attractive gifts on usage , then there’s nothing like it. Let us look
at the specific benefits of a zero balance savings account of Axis Bank.
 The ASAP account can be opened online easily, and you do not need to physically
visit any branch to initiate the documentation.
 The facility of opening the account online is only for ASAP accounts whose balance
would never exceed Rs. 1 lakh. But if you plan to exceed Rs. 1 lakh as your account’s
balance, then you would need to visit the branch for completing KYC process in
person.
 You get an offer-packed Rupay Platinum Debit Card with your ASAP account.
 The maximum amount you can shop for at a point of sale counter using this card is
Rs. 1 lakh daily. All spends would also give you the Edge reward points of Axis Bank.
 When you use this debit card for ATM withdrawals, your daily limit is Rs. 40000.
 The Rupay Platinum debit card also offers you dining discounts of 15% at Axis Bank
partner restaurants, or the equivalent amount as cashback A bank incurs several expenses when you open an account Let us look at the specific benefits of a zero balance savings account of Axis Bank .
 This account also has a flexible interest structure. For average balances less than Rs.
50000 you get 3.5%, but for balances higher than that you get 4% interest.
 All balances above Rs. 10000 would also get auto-swept into a fixed deposit with
much higher rate of interest.
 25 multicity cheques are issued free per quarter for this account, anything more than
that would attract charges.ATM usage; 
for more details:- Rupeeiq.com