What is a Mutual Fund?
With the help of other investors, you can pool your cash through mutual funds to buy a variety of stocks, bonds, or other securities that might be challenging for you to compile on your own. This is frequently called a portfolio. The entire value of the securities in the portfolio, divided by the number of outstanding shares of the fund, yields the mutual fund’s price, commonly known as its net asset value (NAV). The value of the securities owned by the portfolio at the conclusion of each business day affects how much this price changes. It should be noted that investors in mutual funds only own shares in the fund; they do not really own the securities in which the fund invests.
In the case of actively managed mutual funds, one or more portfolio managers make the decisions on the purchase and sale of securities with the assistance of teams of researchers. The main objective of a portfolio manager is to find investment opportunities that would help the fund exceed its benchmark, which is typically a well-known index like the Nifty 50 or Sensex. Looking at the fund returns in relation to this benchmark is one technique to gauge how well a fund manager is doing. The majority of experts will advise you to look at longer-term performance, such as 3- and 5-year returns, even if it may be alluring to concentrate on short-term success while analysing a fund.
Benefits of Mutual Fund
Mutual funds may be a wise and economical choice for the average modest investor. While each fund may have a different individual purchase minimum, which can be as low as INR 100, the majority of funds allow you to purchase units for as little as INR 100. Additionally, if clients purchase use a zero commission platform like Kuvera they will be saved from brokerage, commission which comes in form of higher expense ratio of regular mutual fund schemes. You may easily diversify your investments by purchasing shares in a mutual fund, which is really just another way of saying that you won’t put all your eggs in one basket. For instance, NIFTY 50 holds shares in over 50 companies, they are some of India’s biggest and best companies. Building and managing a portfolio with that many assets might potentially be exceedingly problematic, if not impossible, for someone with a little amount of money to invest.
Professional Money Management
As a mutual fund investor, you benefit from a competent management continuously evaluating the portfolio. Before making an investment decision, professional portfolio managers and analysts can do company research and analyse market data thanks to their knowledge and technological tools. Through the examination of technical variables, sector allocation, and individual security evaluation, fund managers decide which stocks to acquire and sell. This may prove to be of great value to people who lack the time or the knowledge to manage their finances.
Liquidity And Comfort
You are able to buy or sell shares of any mutual fund at the NAV which is calculated every day after the market closes. Additionally, you have the option to make additional investments at any time, as well as automatically reinvest dividend and capital gain distribution income. The required minimum initial commitment in a mutual fund is typically significantly lower than what you would need to invest to create a diversified portfolio of individual stocks.
Tax Implications
The portfolio’s holdings of securities frequently yield dividends or interest. The fund management may also sell securities that have appreciated in value. These kinds of occurrences can contribute in the fund’s ability to earn income, which is then required by law to be distributed to investors on a regular basis. Taxes on these distributions are typically paid by investors who are still holding mutual fund units at the time they are made.
Two types of taxes may apply to investors who own mutual funds: long term capital gains tax and short term capital gains tax.
Fees
There are a variety of fees that may be associated with mutual funds. Some funds charge you a certain amount as exit load when you sell or redeem the mutual fund units. Investors also pay ongoing expenses to cover the cost of operating the fund it is called expense ratio it is deducted on a yearly basis; this includes salaries of various personnel associated with the mutual fund (paying the fund manager and the research staff), as well as transaction costs associated with buying and selling securities within the fund. When evaluating a fund, remember that fees play a factor and may potentially detract from a fund’s performance over time.
What Are Flexicap Mutual Funds?
Before we understand what flexicap funds are we need to understand what multicap funds are.
Multi-cap funds are those that can invest in large cap, mid size, and small cap stocks with a minimum of 65 percent investment in equities and equity-related instruments, according to a Sebi circular published in October 2017 on “Categorization and Rationalization of Mutual Fund Schemes.”
Given the chance to participate in a wider range of assets with a variety of capitalizations, these schemes quickly gained popularity. Multiple flexicap schemes were launnched by major mutual fund houses of India. Undoubtedly, more asset management firms offered multi-cap plans than large, mid, or small cap strategies. They quickly became one of the most popular mutual fund offering.
SEBI in 2020 made the decision to partially change the scheme characteristics of multi-cap funds in order to diversify the underlying investments of these funds across large, mid, and small cap companies while remaining faithful to the label. It required that at least 75% of the money invested in this category be made in equities and equity-related securities, with a minimum of 25% going to large cap firms, a minimum of 25% going to mid-size companies, and a minimum of 25% going to small cap companies. Any of the three aforementioned areas can receive the final 25% of the investment.
This regulatory action was taken to ensure that multi-cap schemes lived up to their name. Multi-cap funds ought to give investors exposure to the whole capitalization spectrum. The mutual fund sector, however, had a different perspective. It sees this as limiting the fund managers’ discretion in making allocations. Now, small cap equities must make up 25% of the investments made by the multi-cap funds. Additionally, they are only allowed a maximum of 50% exposure to large cap stocks.
On November 6, 2020, Sebi reintroduced multi-cap funds in their previous form under the name flexi-cap funds as a new category within equity schemes, as suggested by the mutual fund advisory committee. Flexi-cap funds can invest in a variety of capitalization ranges without any restrictions, living up to their name.
An open-ended dynamic equity fund known as a “flexi-cap fund” is described as investing in large, mid, and small cap companies with a minimum investment of 65% of total assets in equities and equity-related derivatives. An existing system can be changed to a flexi cap scheme by fund managers. Many fund houses decided to transform their multi-asset funds into flexi-cap funds because better forecasting by the fund manager might improve performance with more allocation freedom.
How is Flexicap Mutual Funds Different From Other Mutual Funds?
Equity funds known as “Flexi Cap” invest in opportunities throughout the full range of market capitalization. Depending on their appeal, these sorts of funds have the ability to go dynamically overweight or underweight in in large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap equities. They stand out among all other types of funds because of this. There are 25 Flexi cap type mutual funds, according to information from AMFI (Association Mutual Funds India). Just to elaborate a flexicap fund can invest 100 percent of its corpus in largecap funds or invest or increase allocation to midcap and smallcap stocks if the market situation changes as per his discreetion. The hands of the fund manager are not tied by the regulation in case of flexicap funds.
The fund managers of the flexi cap category can invest in any company, regardless of size, without restriction. They can profit from tiny, expanding companies with sound balance sheets and stocks with high growth rates. The managers seek out future earnings as well as cash flows and favourable return ratios. The fund manager’s choice is unaffected by changes in the stock classification. They stand by the wagers they made in the belief that investing based on fundamentals will produce long-term rewards as opposed to short-term gains.
Who Should Invest in Flexicap Funds?
The Indian economy experienced a protracted slump since 2020. As a result, growth prospects for medium-sized and small-cap enterprises are particularly bleak. Many of these businesses worry about the stability of their business. Large caps may be heavily exposed in Flexi Cap Funds. However, their reallocation is complete if the market shifts in favour of mid-caps and small-caps securities.
Investors with a moderate to high appetite for risk can consider the Flexi cap mutual fund. However, the investors must have a long-term investment horizon. This sort of portfolio’s tiny caps may be more volatile, which raises the risk associated with it. However, by balancing out these risks, big businesses are able to reduce some of that volatility and offer stability.
Before Investing in Flexi Cap Mutual Funds: Things to Consider
There are many different kinds of funds, but before you invest, it’s crucial to think about your financial goals. Combining top-down and bottom-up strategies is beneficial. It gets your portfolio ready for any possibilities that might present itself with both large-cap stocks and smaller ones.
A good flexi cap fund evaluates its allocation across big, mid, and small cap and rebalances periodically. Some fund houses employ internal models to make this choice. However, at present most flexicap funds are heavily invested in largecap companies given the turbulent market conditions.
Flexi Cap mutual funds provide a varied portfolio with a reasonable level of risk and return balance. Additionally, the fund generates consistent returns even during down market periods, making it ideal for long-term investors. So if you invest in Flexi cap mutual funds, your investment horizon should be longer term.
What distinguishes multi-cap funds from flexi cap, largecap, smallcap, midcap funds?
Key variations
Mid-cap or small-cap funds or large cap funds are restricted to investing in other companies in their respective categories, but flexi-cap funds can invest in any company regardless of the company’s market capitalization. Recently, this category was introduced to set it apart from multi-cap funds. Multi-cap funds invest in small, mid, and large cap companies equally, at a rate of 25% for each. Flexi-cap fund managers, however, are free to invest the money across numerous market groups and businesses and evaluate the growth prospects of various organisations without taking their size into account. Additionally, these funds invest in the best-performing businesses that are market leaders in their respective industries, adhere to tried-and-true solid business strategies, have excellent balance sheets, etc. Therefore, these funds are well-positioned to produce higher risk-adjusted returns.
Where Should You Invest – Multicap or Flexicap?
Your investment needs and risk tolerance are the two most crucial considerations when selecting between flexi cap and multicap fund. Additionally, you should analyse and align your portfolio’s existing asset allocation with your desired outcome.
Buying flexi-cap funds can allow you to benefit from both worlds. Because of their dynamic nature they invest in those particular companies which are best situated in a given market situation.
Multicap funds because of regulatory restrictions are not as dynamic as flexciap funds. Please read the offer document and decide which particular category of mutual funds suits your needs and risk profile.
Conclusion
The fundamental reason SEBI established many categories for mutual funds was to provide investors more information. According to your level of risk tolerance, investment requirements, and preferences, each category offers a variety of benefits. Multicap funds are appropriate for investors seeking long-term, consistent growth given their historic performance. Flexi caps, however, can provide superior returns potentially in choppy markets. Even though there can be an opportunity cost, it yields returns. Examples of this include market conditions that are unpredictable in the future due to geopolitical concerns like trade wars or political unrest. As always, prior to making any investing decisions, you should speak with your financial advisor. However, based on your investment preferences, the aforementioned information could assist you in making wise judgments.
Did you know? You can now invest in flexi cap mutual funds on Kuvera:
Step 1: Download the Kuvera app or visit our website.
Step 2: Create your account on Kuvera by completing the mandatory KYC procedure. This will hardly take a few minutes. Once that’s completed, select the ‘Invest’ option on our homepage after which you can select ‘Mutual Funds’ and ‘Arbitrage’.
Step 3: Kindly go through the list of all zero-commission direct plans of flexicap schemes to start investing.
Interested in how we think about the markets?
Read more: Zen And The Art Of Investing
Watch/hear on YouTube:
Start investing through a platform that brings goal planning and investing to your fingertips. Visit kuvera.in to discover Direct Plans and Fixed Deposits and start investing today.
#MutualFundSahiHai #KuveraSabseSahiHai!
