18-10-2014, 03:37 PM
A Comparative Performance Evaluation of BSL MF Schemes
With Its Peer Group Mutual Fund Scheme
1408038070-Birlasunlife.docx (Size: 289.51 KB / Downloads: 15)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Mutual fund are financial intermediaries, which collect the savings of investors and invest in a large and well-diversified portfolio of securities such as money market instruments(Treasury bills, commercial papers, certificate deposits), corporate and government bonds and equity shares of joint stock companies depending upon its objectives.
Origin of Mutual Fund Investing: When three Boston securities executives pooled their money together in 1924 to create the first mutual fund. The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India. Mutual fund industry is today’s Asset Under Management, or AUM, of the Indian mutual fund industry increased 9.6 % or by Rs.77, 500 crore in March 2014 to a record high of Rs.9.50 trillion.
The Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company Ltd. (BSLAMC) established in the year 1994, BSL AMC is the investment manager of Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund, is a joint venture between the Aditya Birla Group and the Sun Life Financial Inc. of Canada. With this aim it has successfully catered its products to customers from past 20 years which has been highly appreciated in the market and its 4th largest AMC in India.
During my research period, I found that performance of Birla’s funds along with other major peer group mutual fund schemes research on “A Comparative Performance Evaluation of Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund Schemes with Its Peer Group Mutual Fund Scheme” and tried find out current performance position with other 7 other funds schemes. For study I have been used last 5 year (1st April 2009 to 31st March 2014) secondary NAV data.
And based on research information, findings were analysed and suitable suggestions were made to the Investors in order to invest in Birla’s short term and medium term funds, but long term and ELSS schemes other funds are performing well.
I conclude that the company should be improving the performance as per market standards and its competitor fund schemes. An investor should know about all risk and return from each fund schemes then invest in that helps to avoid risks and get good returns.
Introduction of Study
World domination largely depends upon economy and technological development of a country which requires huge all kind resources. To mobilize these resources in order to meet out the diversified fund requirement for overall growth and global economic competition central banks as the apex body and wide spectrum of financial intermediaries have come into existence across the world. Efforts to achieve these internal and external objectives, government has drastically and dramatically adopted and implemented policies and procedures of liberalization, privatization, and globalization which resulted high degree of competition in Indian economy and created unexplored opportunities to all players with new high breed diversified product range and operational efficiency. In order to strengthening the efforts GOI & regulator of mutual fund industry requires effective and efficient execution of adopted strategy for financial liberalization. It is noted that the mutual funds industry in India has also attained maturity and has grown dramatically over the last twenty years which can be assessed by the quantum of secondary trading and variety of funds offered by the issuers. Due to its stupendous growth mutual fund industry is socially bound to be transparent in quality of financial reporting; and is subject to a large amount of research which ethically contributes to our knowledge and provides appropriate answers to the everlasting issues like performance measurement, style, managers’ compensation.
Some issues however remain obscure and need attention to learn their peculiarity and develop ultimate solution as well. It is found that in India the concept of a socially responsible fund and schemes especially focusing upon the clientele in select age group are not common and investors are largely unknown to such type of financial instruments which are also known as ethical funds and aims to cater the need of a population segment with personal ethical codes under certain predetermined amount of risk. It is been observed that under the ages of globalization demand for finance has grown many fold and fueled the capital market. With flood of new and high breed financial instrument in market it became necessary to understand the meaning, use, importance and benefit of mutual fund which are also known as Investment Trust, Investment Company, Money Fund etc. In general, the term mutual denote that all gains or losses resulting from the investment accrue to all the investment in proportion to their subscription. It is an American concept which played a supportive role in bridging the gap between supply and demand in contrast to other financial instruments in the capital market and now it is widely acknowledged across the world. It worked as a connecting bridge or plays a role of a financial intermediary which is jointly managed by professional money managers and allows common investors to pool their money together with a predetermined investment objective with certain risk. According to Securities and Exchange Board of India (Mutual Fund) Regulations, 1996 defines mutual funds as a fund established in the form of a trust to raise monies through the sale of units to the public or a section of the public under one or more schemes for investing in securities including money market instruments.
In present volatile financial market mutual funds have became essentially investment vehicle especially for bingers. Common investors with common objective club together and pool their money in hope of future appreciation. Investing in mutual fund means, buying some units or portions of mutual fund and becoming shareholder or unit holder of the fund with the advantage of diversification (Diversification means, spreading out your invested amount across available or different types of investments) which balance the investment, minimizes risk to certain extent& rationalize returns. The beauty of mutual fund is, invested money in it diversify automatically in a set category of investments and investment which are made in mutual fund are managed by fund manager who are qualified professional and are been authorized by the board / Trust with specific guidelines issued by SEBI and other regulatory bodies and are responsible for investing the pooled money of investors in classified schemes which are launched on regular intervals, like open ended scheme (which do not have any fixed maturity period), close ended scheme (which have fixed maturity period).
In process the fund manager on investors behalf buy units of funds in securities ranging from equity, preference share to debentures of emerging or mid size companies, growth companies, low-grade corporate bonds to money market instruments which are spread across a wide cross-section of industries and sectors that best suits investor risk apatite, preferences and needs depending on the objective of the scheme. Later, on the maturity of scheme the realized income through market investment and the capital appreciation are distributed amongst the investors by way of dividend or net asset value (NAV) appreciation in proportion to the number of unit investor posses. By Investing in mutual fund investors enjoy triple benefits that are minimum risk, steady return and capital appreciation to tighten governance and disclosure rules and establishing foolproof monitoring system to eliminate unethical practices which are in practice for long due to orthodox financial market system.
Due to these significant distinctions mutual fund has established itself as a dark horse in the area of financial services worldwide and grown rapidly in comparison to others financial instrument.
It is widely accepted that mutual funds are highly regulated and provide excellent investor protection; Government of India (GOI) through Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has made Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) as a key body to formulate policies, procedures and regulates the mutual funds and issues guidelines from time to time. It notified regulations issued in 1993 were fully revised in 1996 in public interest which authoritatively regulates MF either promoted by public or by private sector entities including promoted by foreign entities.
The commencement of MF require registration certificate which is obtained from SEBI. According to SEBI Regulations, two thirds of the directors of Trustee Company or board of trustees must be independent. Further, SEBI approved Asset Management Company (AMC) who with following the guidelines manages the funds by making investments in various types of securities and registered the Custodian who holds the securities of various schemes of the fund in its custody.
In addition these Rules regulations and procedures for better growth and return Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) is also formed to provide helping hand with the core objective to promote awareness of the MF industry, and is very much engaged in consolidating professional standards and ethics in order to promote best industry practices in diverse areas such as valuation, disclosure, transparency etc. It has also made mandatory for all the companies to have credit rating (which indicates the credit worthiness of the borrower) if they are raising or have raised funds from open market in the form of long term debt, debentures, bonds, fixed deposits, commercial paper.
Mutual Funds are essentially investment vehicles where people with similar investment objective come together to pool their money and then invest accordingly. Each unit of any scheme represents the proportion of pool owned by the unit holder (investor). Appreciation or reduction in value of investments is reflected in net asset value (NAV) of the concerned scheme, which is declared by the fund from time to time. Mutual fund schemes are managed by respective Asset Management Companies (AMC). Different business groups/ financial institutions/ banks have sponsored these AMCs, either alone or in collaboration with reputed international firms.
The main aim of the investor is to minimize the risk involved in investment & maximize return. Today there are number of options available to investor like Post office investment, bank deposit, Real estate, debentures, Government securities, stock market, insurance & gold etc. Among these, Mutual Fund companies are the best investment options which require less capital & suitable for all especially to the persons who do not have time to watch the market regularly
Research Methodology for This Study
The study makes a comprehensive evaluation of schemes of 7 BSL MF and its peer group mutual fund scheme over a period of 5 year (2009-2014) excepted Ultra Short term mutual fund. The required data has been collected from the www.amfiindia.com, www.moneycontrol.com, www.valueresearchonline.com, www.nseindia.com, www.besindia.com and the risk is calculated on the basis of monthly end NAV of each concerned fund. Further, Index (BSE 200), S&P BSE SENSEX, CRISIL, CCNX MID CAP, BLENDED INDEX. CRISIL AA SHORT TERM. Has been taken as the benchmark index and its historical data is used for computation market return. Yield on 10 yr. govt. bond has been taken as the surrogate for the risk free rate of return viz.8% p.a.
Limitations:
The date cannot be representative for long period as the researcher uses the data of 5 years at monthly interval basis.
Findings of the study will be applicable for the conditions, which prevailed during period for which data have been taken.
Finding cannot be taken for generalization.
Objectives of Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund
To define and maintain high professional and ethical standards in all areas of operations of mutual fund industry.
To recommend and promote best business practices and code of conduct to be followed by members and others engaged in activities of mutual fund and asset management including agencies connected or involved in the field of capital markets and financial services.
To interact with Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and to represent to SEBI on all matters concerning the mutual fund industry.
To represent to the Government, Reserve Bank of India and other bodies on all matters relating to Mutual Fund Industry.
To develop cadre of well-trained Agent distributors and to implement a programme of training and certification for all intermediaries and other engaged in the industry.
To undertake nationwide investor awareness programs so as to promote proper understanding of the concept and working of mutual funds.
To disseminate information on Mutual Fund Industry and to undertake studies and research directly and/or in association with other bodies