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Project On Perception Towards Mutual Fund PDF
Project On Perception Towards Mutual Fund PDF
BY
SRM UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
MUTUAL FUND
TABLE OF CONTENT
1. INTRODUCTION:-
a. Introduction of mutual fund
b. Opportunity & challenges.
c. Mutual fund industry in india
d. Types of mutual fund
CHAPTER:-1 e. Advantages of mutual fund
f. Basis of selection
g. Constituent of mutual fund
h. Marketing strategy
i. Market segment
j. Marketing of funds & challenges.
k. SEBI guidelines
4.1 Findings
CHAPTER:-4 4.2 Suggestion
4.3 Conclusion
CHAPTER:-5 Bibliography
CHAPTER:-6 QUESTIONNIRE
LIST OF TABLES
III Savings
V Investment choice
VI Choice to invest
8 Savings
11 Choice to invest
12 Reason to invest
13 Investment amount
22 Suggestion to others
23 Suggested benefits
INTRODUCTION
a) MUTUAL FUND
Mutual Funds refer to funds which collect money from investors and put this money in
stocks, bonds and other securities to gain financial profit. Persons whose money is used by
the Mutual Fund Manager to buy stocks, bonds and other securities, get a percentage of the
Profit earned by the mutual fund in return of their Investments. In this way, the mutual fund
offers benefit to both parties.
A Mutual Fund is a trust that pools the savings of a number of investors who share a common
financial goal. The money thus collected is then invested in capital market instruments such
as shares, debentures and other securities. The income earned through these investments and
the capital appreciation realized is shared by its unit holders in proportion to the number of
units owned by them. Thus a Mutual Fund is the most suitable investment for the common
man as it offers an opportunity to invest in a diversified, professionally managed basket of
securities at a relatively low cost. The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a
mutual fund.
Fig:-1
A mutual fund is a professionally managed type of collective investment scheme that pools
money from many investors and invests it in stocks, bonds, short-term money market
instruments, and/or other securities. The mutual fund will have a fund manager that trades the
pooled money on a regular basis. Currently, the worldwide value of all mutual funds totals
more than $26 trillion
The mutual fund organization earns profit by using people's money for investment and the
persons who invest in mutual fund acquire financial Profit without going into intensive
analysis and research on bonds and stocks. The work of stock and bond Market Analysis,
Market Research and Market Speculation is done by the mutual fund managers.
The people who invest in Mutual Funds are generally exposed to much lower Risk compared
to those who directly invest in bonds and stocks. Mutual Fund Investment involves lower
Risk as the investment is diversified in to different bonds and stocks. So, if at any time
Market Value of one particular bond or value of the stocks of any particular company drops,
then the loss incurred by the mutual fund can be offset by the Market Gain of any other bond
or stocks.
Fig:-2
Investors get a lot of advantages with the Mutual Fund Investment. Firstly, they are not
required to carry on intensive research and detailed analysis on Stock Market and Bond
Market. This work is done by the Fund Mangers of the Investment Management Company on
behalf of the investors. In fact, the professional Fund Managers who handle the mutual funds
of any particular company are able to speculate the market trend more correctly than any
common individual. Good Speculation about the trends of stock prices and bond prices leads
to right allocation of funds in the right stocks and bonds resulting in good Rate of Returns.
Investors also get the advantage of high Liquidity of the mutual funds. This means the
investors can enjoy easy access to the funds invested in the mutual funds whenever they
require the money. When the investors invest in any mutual fund, they are given some equity
position in that fund. The investors can any time sell their mutual fund shares to get back the
money invested in mutual funds. The only thing is that the Rate of Return that they will get
may not be favorable as the return depends on the present market condition.
The greatest opportunity that the mutual funds offer is the opportunity of diversifying their
investments. Investment Diversification actually diversifies the Risk associated with
investment. This is because, if at a time, if prices of some stocks are declining, deceasing the
Value of Investment, prices of some other stocks and bonds may tend to rise and in this way
the loss of the mutual fund is offset by the strength of the stocks whose prices are rising. As
all the mutual funds diversify their investments in various common stocks, preferred stocks
and different bonds, the risk to be borne by the investors are well diversified and in other
terms lowered.
People find mutual fund investment so much interesting because they think they can gain
high rate of return by diversifying their investment and risk. But, in reality this scope of high
rate of returns is just one side of the coin. On the other side, there is the harsh reality of
highly Fluctuating Rate of Returns. Though there are other disadvantages also, this concern
of fluctuating returns is most possibly the greatest challenge faced by the mutual fund.
Taxes-Every year, most of the mutual funds sell substantial amount of their holdings. If
they earn profit by this sell, then the investors receive the Profit Income. For most of the
mutual funds, the investors are bound to pay taxes on these incomes, even if they reinvest
the income.
Costs- Most of the mutual funds charge Shareholder Fees and Fund Operating Fees from
the investors. In the year, in which mutual fund fails to make profit and the investors get no
return, these fees only blow up the losses.
Mutual Funds Vs Individual Stocks has always been a debatable issue. While some like to
play safe with mutual fund investment, some others prefer investment in individual stocks.
When any investor invests in any mutual fund all that he is required to do is pay the
Shareholder Fees and Fund Operating Fees. The whole work of managing funds, starting
from Market Research and analysis of stock and bond price and recent market trends up to
final Allocation of Funds or assets in various stocks and bonds is completely done by the
Professional Fund Managers employed by the Investment Management Company. In this
case, the fund management remains in the hands of the fund managers of the mutual fund
company. But, in case of Direct Investment in individual stocks, the total control remains in
the hands of the individual investors.
But, most of the people agree about the fact, that mutual funds hold some important benefits
over and above Individual Stocks. So, to get the actual depiction of Mutual Funds Vs
Individual Stocks, we will discuss the advantages put forwarded by Mutual Funds.
fund by UTI in the year 1963. Though the growth was slow, but it accelerated from the year
1987 when non-UTI players entered the market.
In the past decade, Indian mutual fund industry had seen dramatic improvements,
both quality wise as well as quantity wise. Before, the monopoly of the market had seen
an ending phase; the Assets under Management (AUM) were Rs. 67bn. The private
sector entry to the fund family raised the AUM to Rs. 470 by in March 1993 and till
April 2009; it reached the height 2000 bn.
Putting the AUM of the Indian Mutual Funds Industry into comparison, the total of it is less
than the deposits of SBI alone, constitute less than 11% of the total deposits held by the
Indian banking industry.
The main reason of its poor growth is that the mutual fund industry in India is new in the
country. Large sections of Indian investors are yet to be intellectualed with the concept.
Hence, it is the prime responsibility of all mutual fund companies, to market the product
correctly abreast of selling.
The mutual fund industry can be broadly put into four phases according to the development
of the sector. Each phase is briefly described as under.
Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament. It was set up by
the Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of
the Reserve Bank of India. In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial
Development Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in
place of RBI. The first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964. At the end of 1988
UTI had Rs.6, 700 crores of assets under management.
Entry of non-UTI mutual funds. SBI Mutual Fund was the first followed by Canbank Mutual
Fund (Dec 87), Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89), Indian Bank Mutual Fund
(Nov 89), Bank of India (Jun 90), Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92). LIC in 1989 and
GIC in 1990. The end of 1993 marked Rs.47, 004 as assets under management.
With the entry of private sector funds in 1993, a new era started in the Indian mutual fund
industry, giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families. Also, 1993 was the year
in which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being, under which all mutual funds,
except UTI were to be registered and governed. The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged
with Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993.
The 1993 SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and
revised Mutual Fund Regulations in 1996. The industry now functions under the SEBI
(Mutual Fund) Regulations 1996. The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing,
with many foreign mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed
several mergers and acquisitions. As at the end of January 2003, there were 33 mutual funds
with total assets of Rs. 1,21,805 crores. The Unit Trust of India with Rs.44, 541 crores of
assets under management was way ahead of other mutual funds.
In February 2003, following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was
bifurcated into two separate entities. One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of
India with assets under management of Rs.29, 835 crores as at the end of January 2003,
representing broadly, the assets of US 64 scheme, assured return and certain other schemes.
The Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India, functioning under an administrator and
under the rules framed by Government of India and does not come under the purview of the
Mutual Fund Regulations.
The second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd, sponsored by SBI, PNB, BOB and LIC. It is
registered with SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations. With the bifurcation
of the erstwhile UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs.76, 000 crores of assets under
management and with the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund, conforming to the SEBI Mutual
Fund Regulations, and with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds,
the mutual fund industry has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth. As at the
end of September 2004, there were 29 funds, which manage assets of Rs.153108 crores under
421 schemes.
d) Types of Schemes
Fig:-3
Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors’ and/ or getting
increased value of their investments. To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt
different strategies and accordingly offer different schemes of investments. On these bases
the simplest way to categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad
classifications:
Operational Classification
As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open i.e., not specified or pre-
determined. Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can subscribe at any time.
Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time. It implies that the
capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their shares.
Further, the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are
repurchased by the fund at announced rates. Open-ended schemes have comparatively better
liquidity despite the fact that these are not listed. The reason is that investors can any time
approach mutual fund for sale of such units. No intermediaries are required. Moreover, the
realizable amount is certain since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value
(NAV). No minute-to-minute fluctuations in rates haunt the investors. The portfolio mix of
such schemes has to be investments, which are actively traded in the market. Otherwise, it
will not be possible to calculate NAV. This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes
are equity based.
Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares/ units are redeemed. Unlike
open-ended funds, these funds have fixed capitalization, i.e., their corpus normally does not
change throughout its life period. Close ended fund units trade among the investors in the
secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges. Their price is
determined on the basis of demand and supply in the Market. Their liquidity depends on the
efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker. Their price is free to deviate from
NAV, i.e., there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV. If
one takes into account the issue expenses, conceptually close ended fund units cannot be
traded at a premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments, i.e., cannot
exceed the sum of the prices of the investments constituting the package. Whatever
premium exists that may exist only on account of speculative activities. In India as per SEBI
(MF) Regulations every mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes.
Following are the portfolio classification of funds, which may be offered. This classification
may be on the basis of (a) Return, (b) Investment Pattern, (c) Specialized sector of
investment, (d) Leverage and (e) Others.
To meet the diversified needs of the investors, the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a
good return. Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a
combination of these two.
I. Income Funds: - For investors who are more curious for returns, Income funds are
floated. Their objective is to maximize current income. Such funds distribute periodically
the income earned by them. These funds can further be splitted up into categories: those that
stress constant income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum
income possible, even with the use of leverage. Obviously, the higher the expected returns,
the higher the potential risk of the investment.
ii. Growth Funds: - Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying
investments through capital appreciation. Such funds invest in growth-oriented securities,
which can appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run. An investor
who selects such funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk.
iii. Conservative Funds: - The fund with a philosophy of all things to issue offers
document-announcing objectives as: (I) To provide a reasonable rate of return, (ii) To
protect the value of investment and, (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the
fulfillment of the first two objectives. Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average
return and reasonable capital appreciation are known as middle of the road funds. Such
funds divide their portfolio in common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired
objectives. Such funds have been most popular and appeal to the investors who want both
growth and income.
Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest.
Basically, it is renaming the subcategories of return based classification.
I. Equity Fund: - Such funds, as the name implies, invest most of their investible shares in
equity shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity
shares. Such funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market, because these
have almost all their capital in equity. Equity funds again can be of different categories
varying from those that invest exclusively in high quality blue-chip companies to those that
invest solely in the new, unestablished companies. The strength of these funds is the
expected capital appreciation. Naturally, they have a higher degree of risk.
Such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds, debentures, etc. this type of fund is
expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital
appreciation. Obviously risk is low in such funds. In this category we may come across the
funds called Liquid Funds, which specialize in investing short-term money market
instruments. The emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns.
The funds, which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and bonds, are known
as balanced funds. Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share investments when the
outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is expected to be
poor for shares.
There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy. While such funds do
have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket, the
policy of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive
knowledge of the specific sector in which they are investing. Sector based funds are
aggressive growth funds which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a
particular sector.
Real Estate
Infrastructure
IT Sector
Auto Sector
Fig:-4
Flexibility - Mutual Fund investments also offers a lot of flexibility with features such as
systematic investment plans, systematic withdrawal plans & dividend reinvestment.
Affordability - They are available in units so this makes it very affordable. Because of the
large corpus, even a small investor can benefit from its investment strategy.
Liquidity - In open-ended schemes, there is an option of withdrawing or redeeming money.
Diversification - Risk is lowered with Mutual Funds as they invest across different industries
& stocks.
Professional Management - Expert Fund Managers of the Mutual Fund analyze all options
based on experience & research.
Potential of return -The fund managers who take care of Mutual Fund have access to
information and statistics from leading economists and analysts around the world. Because of
this, they are in a better position than individual investors to identify opportunities for
investments to flourish.
Low Costs – The benefits of scale in brokerage, custodial and other fees translate into lower
costs for investors.
Regulated for investor protection - The Mutual Funds sector is regulated to safeguard the
investor's interests.
Professional Management – The primary advantage of funds (at least theoretically) is the
professional management of money. Investors purchase funds because they do not have the
time or the expertise to manage their own portfolio. A mutual fund is a relatively inexpensive
way for a small investor to get a full-time manager to make and monitor investments.
Diversification –By owning shares in a mutual fund instead of owning individual stocks or
bonds, risk is spread out. The idea behind diversification is to invest in a large number of
assets so that a loss in any particular investment is minimized by gains in others. In other
words, the more stocks and bonds an individual own, the less any one of them can hurt.
Economies of Scale: – Because a mutual fund buys and sells large amounts of securities at a
time, its transaction costs are lower than as an individual would pay.
Liquidity – Just like an individual stock, a mutual fund allows in converting shares into cash
at any time.
Simplicity – Buying a mutual fund is easy. When an investor invest in the mutual fund then
they need to take form, fill it according to required instructions given and give the demand
draft or cheque of amount whatever they want to invest.
Reduced risk: - As mutual funds invests in large number of companies and are managed
professionally, the risk factor of the investor is reduced. A small investor, on the other hand,
may not be in position to minimize the such risk.
Tax advantage: - There are certain schemes of mutual fund which provide tax advantage
under income tax act. Thus tax liability of investor also reduced when he invest in mutual
fund schemes.
Low operating cost: - Mutual fund has large number of investible funds at their disposal
and thus can avail the large scale of economies. This reduces their operating cost by way of
brokerage, fees, commission etc. Thus, an investor can also gets the benefits of large scale of
economies and low operating cost.
Professional Management – Many investors debate over whether or not the so-called
professionals are any better than an individual or others at picking stocks. Management is by
no means infallible, and, even if the fund loses money, the manager still takes his/her cut.
Costs – The mutual fund industry is masterful at burying costs under layers of jargon. These
costs are so complicated that in this tutorial we have devoted an entire section to the subject.
Dilution – Because funds have smallholdings in so many different companies, high returns
from a few investments. Often don't make much difference on the overall return. Dilution is
also the result of a successful fund getting too big. When money pours into funds that have
had strong success, the manager often has trouble finding a good investment for all the new
money.
Taxes – When making decisions about an individual’s money, fund managers don't consider
about personal tax situation. For example, when a fund manager sells a security, a capital-
gain tax is triggered, which affects how profitable the individual is from the sale. It might
have been more advantageous for the individual to defer the capital gains liability.
Investors are selecting the mutual funds on the basis of following aspects of investment:-
Net assets
Portfolio composition
Income composition
Gross income as percentage of net assets
Expenses ratio
Realized gain per unit
Unrealized appreciation per unit
Fig:-5
All mutual funds comprise four constituents – Sponsors, Trustees, Asset Management
Company (AMC) and Custodians.
Sponsors:
The sponsors initiate the idea to set up a mutual fund. It could be a registered company,
scheduled bank or financial institution. A sponsor has to satisfy certain conditions, such as
capital, record (at least five years’ operation in financial services), and de-fault free dealings
and general reputation of fairness. The sponsors appoint the Trustee, AMC and Custodian.
Once the AMC is formed, the sponsor is just a stakeholder.
Trustees hold a fiduciary responsibility towards unit holders by protecting their interests.
Trustees float and market schemes, and secure necessary approvals. They check if the
AMC’s investments are within well-defined limits, whether the fund’s assets are protected,
and also ensure that unit holders get their due returns. They also review any due diligence
by the AMC. For major decisions concerning the fund, they have to take the unit holders
consent. They submit reports every six months to
SEBI:
Investors get an annual report. Trustees are paid annually out of the fund’s assets – 0.5
percent of the weekly net asset value.
They are the ones who manage money of the investors. An AMC takes decisions,
compensates investors through dividends, maintains proper accounting and information for
pricing of units, calculates the NAV, and provides information on listed schemes. It also
exercises due diligence on investments, and submits quarterly reports to the trustees. A
fund’s AMC can neither act for any other fund nor undertake any business other than asset
management. Its net worth should not fall below Rs. 10 crore. And, its fee should not exceed
1.25 percent if collections are below Rs. 100 crore and 1 percent if collections are above Rs.
100 crore. SEBI can pull up an AMC if it deviates from its prescribed role.
Custodian:
Often an independent organization, it takes custody of securities and other assets of mutual
fund. Its responsibilities include receipt and delivery of securities, collecting income-
distributing dividends, safekeeping of the units and segregating assets and settlements
between schemes. Their charges range between 0.15-0.2 percent of the net value of the
holding. Custodians can service more than one fund.
The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into three main headings:
A. Direct marketing
C. Joint Calls
Direct Marketing:
This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds. Some of the important tools
used in this type of selling are:
Personal Selling: In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the
fund at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect. Once the
appointment is fixed, the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA)
in some funds then meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes
being offered by his fund. The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30% -
40%.
Telemarketing: In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund. The names
and phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory. Some fund
houses have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products. Sometimes
people belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then
informed about the fund. Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15% -
20%.
Direct mail: This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds. Addresses
of people are picked at random from telephone directory, business directory, professional
directory etc. The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes
offered by the fund. The follow up starts after 3 to 4 days of mailing the literature. The CSO
calls on the people to whom the literature was mailed. Answers their queries and is generally
successful in taking appointments with those people. It is then the job of BDA to try his best
to convert that prospect into a customer.
Advertisement in TV/FM Channel: The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in
TV and FM Channels to promote their funds.
Hoardings and Banners: In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at
important locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high. The hoarding
and banner generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief
information about all schemes of fund.
Intermediaries contribute towards 80% of the total sales of mutual funds. These are the
people/ distributors who are in direct touch with the investors. They perform an important
role in attracting new customers. Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling
shares and other investment instruments. They do a commendable job in convincing investors
to invest in mutual funds. A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary
to the customer.
Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information about
the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market especially if
they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested.
Most of the funds conduct monthly/bi-monthly meetings with their distributors. The objective
is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from funds side and other queries related
to the market situation. Sometimes, special training programmes are also conducted for the
new agents/ distributors.
Training involves giving details about the products of the fund, their present performance in
the market, what the competitors are doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the
fund.
Joint Calls:
This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor. The BDA
and the agent (who is located close to the residence or area of operation) together visit the
prospect and brief him about the fund. The conversion rate is very high in this situation,
generally, around 60%. Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this
particular case.
The most important trend in the mutual fund industry is the aggressive explosion of the
foreign owned mutual funds companies and the decline of the companies floated by
nationalized banks and small private sector players.
Many nationalized banks got into the mutual funds business in the early nineties and got of to
a good start due to the stock market boom prevailing then. These banks did not really
understand the mutual funds business and they viewed it as another kind of banking activity.
Few hired specialized staff and generally chose to transfer staff from parent organizations.
The performance of most of the schemes floated by these organizations was not good. Some
schemes had offered guaranteed returns and there parent organizations had to bail out these
AMC by paying large amount of money as the difference between the guaranteed and actual
returns. The service levels were also very bad. Most of these AMC have not been able to
retain staff, float new schemes etc. And it is doubtful whether, barring a few exceptions, they
have serious plans of continuing the activity in a major way.
The experience of some of the AMC floated by the private sector Indian companies was also
very similar. They quickly realized that the AMC business is a business, which makes money
in the long term and requires deep- pocketed support in the intermediate years. Some have
sold out to foreign owned companies, some have merged with others and there is a general
restructuring going on.
The foreign owned companies have deep pockets and have come here with the expectations
of a long haul. They can be credited with the introduction of many new practices such as new
product innovation, sharp improvement in the service standards and disclosure, usage of
technology, broker education and support etc. In fact, they have forced the industry to
upgrade itself and its service level of organization.
When we consider marketing, we have to see the issues in totality, because we cannot judge
an elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality. When we say
marketing of mutual funds, it means, includes and encompasses the following aspects:
The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds, in totality. Even if there is a single
weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above, no mutual fund can successfully
market its funds.
A. Investor Preferences
The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help
mobilizing savings by targeting investors needs. It is necessary that the common investor
understands very clearly and loudly the salient features of funds, and distinguishes one fund
from another. The funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes, or plain
vanilla funds, and not necessarily designed to take into account the investors varying needs.
The Indian investor is essentially risk averse and is more passive than active. He is not
interested in frequently changing his portfolio, but is satisfied with safety and reasonable
returns. Importantly, he understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a
quantitative comparison of funds performance with respect to an index. Mere growth
prospects, in an uncertain market, are not attractive to him. He prefers one bird in the hand to
two in bush, and is happy if assured a rate of reasonable return that he will get on his
investment. The expectations of a typical investor, in order of preference are the safety of
funds, reasonable return and liquidity.
The investor is ready to invest his money over long periods, provided there is a purpose
attached to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and
emotions. That purpose may be his child education and career development, medical
expenses, health care after retirement, or the need for steady and sure income after retirement.
In a country where social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their
absence, mutual funds can pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet
some of the social needs of the society.
B. Product Innovations
With the debt market now getting developed, mutual funds are tapping the investors who
require steady income with safety, by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt
instruments in their portfolio. The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the
money market mutual funds, sect oral funds, index funds, gilt funds besides equity funds.
The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors, keeping
their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons, festival seasons, sowing seasons, etc.
Market Segmentation: Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria,
on the basis of which they take investment decisions. Not only that, in a particular segment
also there could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes, and
differential preference for various investments attributes of financial product.
Liquidity,
Capital appreciation,
Safety of principal,
Tax treatment,
Dividend or interest income,
Regulatory restrictions,
Time period for investment, etc.
On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five
main segments as under.
1) Retail Segment
This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes. It
consists of individuals, Hindu Undivided Families, and firms. It may be further sub-divided
into:
These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels. It has been observed that
prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of
investment. Similarly, the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ
and therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential
life style, value and ethics, social environment, media habits, and nature of work. Broadly,
this class requires security of the principal, liquidity, and regular income more than capital
appreciation. It lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible
to mob behavior. The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network
and creating awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment.
3) Trusts :---This is a highly regulated, high volumes segment. It consists of various types of
trusts, namely, charitable trusts, religious trust, educational trust, family trust, social trust, etc.
each with different objectives. Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal,
regular income and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation. This
class offers vast potential to the fund managers, if the regulators relax guidelines and allow
the trusts to invest freely in mutual funds.
5) Corporate :---Generally, the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional
surplus funds that earn return more than what they have to pay on account of holding them.
Alternatively, they also get surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business, which
typically become due for the payment within a year or quarter or even a month. They need
short term parking place for their fund, this segment offers a vast potential to specialized
money market managers. Given the relaxation in the regulatory guidelines, fund managers are
expected design products to this segment. Thus, each segment and sub-segment has their own
risk return preferences forming niches in the market. Mutual funds managers have to analyze
in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and design a variety of suitable products for
them. Not only is that, the products also required to be marketed through appropriately
different marketing strategies.
The Atheists are turning believers. Mutual funds, private sector ones in particular, who had
written off advertising as the A ultimate waste of money have nearly tripled their press media
spend .What interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in
the category total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent. This can be
attributed to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual
Funds of India) seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored
counterparts in the public sector.
Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about. But what caused this sudden
attitudinal shift towards advertising? According to experts, funds are being pushed into
advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name
is unfamiliar to investor. Besides, since more open-ended schemes are now available, some
form of ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds. The
industry has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today, when investors are
most receptive to mutual funds, can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent. MF
has rationale for stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the
consumer decision to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people.
According to the mutual fund marketers, advertising helps bring recall when consumers are
looking at investment opportunities. Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and
communication campaign designed to attract investors with long term prospective has helped
the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just about five percent as compared to 20-30
percent for the industry on an average.
Direct mail is another medium, which some funds have successfully used. But rather than
sending out mailers to all and sundry, there is a need for appropriate targeting.
Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process. In these,
investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering
doubts clarified. Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help.
Another very successful media niche, which has been exploited to the hilt by funds, is
intermediary magazines and newsletters. Besides the low costs of advertising in these
newsletters, these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities
and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment. Advertising content by most of the
funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-selling ads dispelling myths, to
selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives/ goals.
k) SEBI GUIDELINES
The SEBI issued a set of regulations and code of conduct of 20 January. 1993 for the
smooth conduct and regulation of Mutual fund. The silent features of these guidelines are a
s follows:
Mutual Fund cannot deal in Option trading, short selling or carrying forward
transactions in securities.
Mutual fund should be formed as trusts and managed by AMC
Restriction to ensure those investments under all schemes do not Exceed 15% of the
The minimum net worth of AMC is Rs. 5 crore of which the minimum contribution
of the corpus of any companies’ shares and investments under all schemes do not
exceed 10% of the funds in the shares, debentures or securities of a single company.
CHAPTER:-2
The Standard Chartered Group was formed in 1869 through a merger of two banks: The
Standard Bank of British South Africa founded in 1863, and the Chartered Bank of India,
Australia and China, founded in 1853. Both companies were keen to capitalize on the huge
expansion of trade and to earn the handsome profits to be made from financing the movement
of goods from Europe to the East and to Africa.
Played a major role in the development of trade with the East which
followed the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, and the extension of
the telegraph to China in 1871
In 1957 Chartered Bank bought the Eastern Bank together with the
Ionian Bank’s Cyprus Branches. This established a presence in the
Gulf
In 1969, the decision was made by Chartered and by Standard to undergo a Friendly merger.
All was going well until 1986, when a hostile takeover bid was made for the Group by Lloyds
Bank of the United Kingdom. When the bid was defeated, Standard Chartered entered a
period of change. Provisions had to be made against third world debt exposure and loans to
corporations and entrepreneurs who could not meet their commitments. Standard Chartered
began a series of divestments notably in the United States and South Africa, and also entered
into a number of asset sales. From the early 90s, Standard Chartered has focused on
developing its strong franchises in Asia, the Middle East and Africa using its operations in
the United Kingdom and North America to provide customers with a bridge between these
markets. Secondly, it would focus on consumer, corporate and institutional banking, and on
the provision of treasury services? areas in which the Group had particular strength and
expertise. In the new millennium we acquired
Grindlays Bank from the ANZ Group and the Chase Consumer Banking operations in Hong
Kong in 2000.
The year 2005 and 2006 were historic years for us as we achieved several milestones with a
number of strategic alliances and acquisitions that will extend our customer or geographic
reach and broaden our product range.
We formed strategic alliances with Fleming Family & Partners to expand private
wealth management in Asia and the Middle East.
We acquired a stake in Bohai Bank in Tianjin, China, making us the first foreign bank
to be allowed a stake in a local bank in China.
We acquired an additional 26% stake in Permata Bank through our consortium with
PT Astra International, thus giving the consortium a total stake of 89%.
We launched a tender offer in the end of 2006 for 100% in Hsinchu International
Bank, Taiwan
PRODUCT PROFILE
EQUITY SCHEME
The Standard Chartered Premier Equity Fund, an innovative open –ended equity fund that
attempts to generate wealth over the long term through a potent combination of well defined
investment strategy and a robust investment management structure. At Standard Chartered
Mutual Fund we believe that wealth creation is a patient process that involves a good blend of
myriad themes like the identification of a basket of growth ideas, investing in them at an
early stage and the conviction to hold on for the longer term. For opportunities then will
abound.
Over the past decade, Indian companies have converted their competitive advantage to
market dominance and in the process have created serious wealth for investors over a 5-year
period. If the software and the telephony sectors like the insurance, aviation to name a couple
where we envisage such growth. The Premier Equity Fund will indulge wholeheartedly in
this endeavor to create wealth creation process and thus seek to provide long - term investors
with an option to generate wealth.
A 3 year close-ended equity fund that will invest in IPOs that are slated for launch in the next
three years. It helps you take advantage of the increasing number of IPOs and benefit from
the potential premium on listing of IPOs. So no more applying, waiting for allotment or
refund cheques. Don’t lose out on IPOs.
The Standard Chartered Arbitrage Fund makes the most the difference across markets by
investing in the cash and futures market. And with up to 35% allocation to debt and money
market instruments, the product suits a low-risk profile perfetcly. You don't have to always
make a choice, but you can make the most from the options. And The Standard Chartered
Arbitrage Fund does exactly that.
Standard Chartered has also introduced its Tax saver ELSS fund Specifically in order to
provide income tax benefit to the IT payers Under section 80C of Income Tax Act.
DEBT SCHEME
Investment Objective:-
To generate optimal returns with high liquidity by active management of the portfolio, by
investing predominantly in debt oriented mutual fund schemes and money market
instruments.
The scheme is designed for investors seeking stable returns over a relatively. Longer tenor
period of investment of more than a year.
Primary objective:-
The primary objective of the study is to understand the mutual fund and understand
the different aspects of mutual funds and their functioning in market.
To understand how a customer looks at the scheme and what kind of benefit they
want from any scheme.
To understand the difference between the direct investment in stocks and in mutual
fund and evaluate that which investment is beneficial.
Secondary objective:-
This study will help in understanding the growing mutual fund market in India and
this will also help us to understand the fast changes in nature of mutual fund.
This study is quite helpful in understanding the functioning of any mutual fund
company in recent loomy market condition.
This study will help in understanding the investment pattern of the mutual fund and
help the customer to choose a particular pattern.
The study will help to understand the organization to understand the changing needs
of the customer and that will the organization to track the customer in future.
The study is done in Patna, where standard chartered mutual fund doesn’t have more
branches that will the organization to expand their firm in Patna by understanding
customer through this study.
This study has been made from the information given by STANDARD
CHARTERD MF office. Accuracy of the findings is dependent on the quality of
their Responses.
Research methodology define as the systematic plan, design, collection, analysis and
reporting of data and findings relevant to a specific marketing situation facing the company.
RESEARCH DESIGN:-
The research requires developing the most efficient plan for gathering the needed
information. this involves decision on the data sources, research approaches, research
instrument, sampling plan and contact method.
EXPLARATORY RESEARCH:-
Explaratory research is conducted when researcher does not know how and why certain
phenomenon occurs. The prime goal for this research is to know unknown, this research is
unstructured.
DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH:-
Descriptive research is carried out to describe the phenomenon or market characteristics. This
study is done to understand buyer behavior and describe characteristics of the target market.
This study is done for evaluation of the customer preference.
CAUSATIVE RESEARCH:-
DATA SOURCES:-
PRIMARY DATA:-
Primary data are collected by a study specifically to fulfill the data needs of the problem at
hand. such data are original in character and are generated in large number of surveys
conducted mostly by government and also by individual, institution, and research bodies.
SECONDARY DATA:-
Data which are not originally collected but rather obtained from published and unpublished
sources are known as secondary data.
Published sources
Unpublished sources
SAMPLE:-
When secondary data are not available for the problem under study, a decision may be made
to collect primary data by different methods for information. The information may be
collected by either the census method or sample method.
The sample is a portion of universe.
SAMPLING METHODS:-
Judgment sampling:-
In this method of sampling the choice of sample items depends on judgment of the
investigator. In other words, the investigator exercises his judgment in the choice and
includes those items in sample which he thinks are most typical of universe with
regard to characteristics under investigation.
Quota sampling:-
In a quota sample, quotas are set up according to some specified characteristics such
as so many in each of several income groups, so many in each age group etc.
Convenience sampling:-
A convenient sampling is obtained by convenient population. This is also called as
chunk.
o Multi stage or cluster sampling:- Under this method, the random selection is
made of primary, intermediate and final (the ultimate) units given from a
given population or stratum.
Percentage method
Average method
The Indian mutual funds industry is witnessing a rapid growth as a result of infrastructural
development, increase in personal financial assets, and rise in foreign participation. With the
growing risk appetite, rising income, and increasing awareness, mutual funds in India are
becoming a preferred investment option compared to other investment vehicles like Fixed
Deposits (FDs) and postal savings that are considered safe but give comparatively low
returns, according to “Indian Mutual Fund Industry”.
This report provides a detailed analysis along with current and future outlook of the Indian
mutual fund industry and explores the market development and potential. The forecasts and
estimations given in this report are not based on a complex economic model, but are intended
as a rough guide to the direction in which the industry is likely to move.
Key Findings
The Indian mutual funds retail market, growing at a CAGR of about 30%, is forecasted to
reach US$ 300 Billion by 2015.
- At about 84% (as on May 31, 2009), private sector Asset Management Companies account
for majority of mutual fund sales in India.
- Individual investors make up for 96.86% of the total number of investor accounts and
contribute 36.9% of the net assets under management.
- What are the key factors fueling growth into the Indian mutual fund market?
- Which are the fastest growing products?
- What are the key growth prospects?
- What are the key challenges for the market?
- How the market is likely to move in future?
Key Players
This section provides business analysis of key players in the Indian mutual fund market,
including Reliance Capital, BOB and HDFC,Standard chartered.
Information sources:-
Information for this report has been sourced from books, newspapers, trade journals, white
papers, industry portals, government agencies, trade associations, monitoring industry news
and developments, and through access to more than 3000 paid databases.
Analysis method:-
The analysis methods used in this report include ratio analysis, historical trend analysis,
linear regression analysis using software tools, judgmental forecasting, and cause and effect
analysis.
CHAPTER:-3
TABLE:-1
Figure:-6
160
140
120
100
80 Occupation
60 No. of respondents
40 percentage
20
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Categories of occupation
Inference:-
66% of respondent were belonging to businessman category.
TABLE NO.-2
Fig:-7
160
No.of repondents
140
120
100 NO. of respondents
80
60 Percentage
40
20
0
5000- 10000- 15000- More Total
10000 15000 20000 than
20000
Income levels
Inference:-
TABLE NO.-3
Savings:-
Fig:-8
Monthly saving
160
140
No. of respondents
120
100
percentage
80
No. of respondents
60
40
20
0
1000-4000 4000-7000 7000-10000 More than Total
10000
saving
Inference:-
TABLE NO.-4
Figure:-9
135
9o%
Inference:-
TABLE NO.-5
Insurance 38 25.5%
Debenture 5 3.5%
Derivatives 13 9%
Fig:-10
Investment pattern
350
No.of respondents
300
250
200 Percentage
150 No. of respondents
100
50
0
es
d
l
e
ta
its
un
ur
ke
nc
iv
To
s
nt
at
ar
lf
ra
po
be
ua
riv
m
su
de
de
De
ut
k
In
oc
nk
M
St
Ba
Invstment alternatives
Inference:-
34% of respondents liked to invest in bank deposit.
TABLE NO.-6
Fig:-11
Yes
No
Inference:-
TABLE NO.-7
Safety 25 16.5%
Fig:-12
reason to select MF
160
No.of respondents
140
120
100 Series1
80
60 Series2
40
20
0
Safety
More return
appreciation
investment
Limited risk
Systematic
Total
Capital
Benefits of MF
Inference:-
26% of respondent would like to invest in mutual fund because of capital
appreciation.
15.5% of respondents would like to invest in mutual fund for systematic investment.
TABLE NO.-8
Fig:-13
investment amount in MF
160
140
120
100
80
No. of respondents
60 Percentage
40
20
0
1000- 4000- 7000- More than Total
4000 7000 10000 10000
Amount
Inference:-
TABLE NO.-9
PREFERRED FUND IN MF
Fig:-14
Inference:-
TABLE NO.-10
Fig:-15
Yes
No
Inference:-
TABLE NO.-11
No 30 20%
Fig:-16
1
2
Inference:-
TABLE NO.-12
Fig:-17
120
100
80
60
40 Respondents
20 percentage
0
For better For tax Total
return benefit
Benefits
Inference:-
32.5% of respondents have invested in STANDARD CHARTERD Mutual fund for
minimum risk.
TABLE NO.-13
Proficiency 27 32.5%
Fig:-18
investment types
60 Proficiency
Inference:-
TABLE NO.-14
In how many schemes of STANDARD CHARTERD Mutual fund would you like to
invest?
1 72 60%
2 15 12.5%
3 16 13.25%
More than 3 17 14.25%
Fig:-19
80
70
60
50 1
40 2
30
3
20
More than 3
10
0
No. of respondent Percentage
No of respondent
Inference:-
TABLE NO.-15
Yes 18 15%
No 102 85%
Fig:-20
Yes
1
2
Inference;-
TABLE NO.-16
Others 0 0%
Total 18 100%
Fig:-21
investment in other MF
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4 No. of respondents
2
0 Percentage
Prudential Birla sun Others
ICICI life
mutual mutual
fund fund
Other MF COs
Inference:-
TABLE NO.-17
Would you like to suggest others to invest in STANDARD CHARTERD mutual fund?
Yes 96 80%
No 24 20%
Fig:-22
Yes
1
2
Inference:-
TABLE NO.-18
For which benefit will you suggest others to invest in STANDARD CHARTERD Mutual
fund?
Fig:-23
120
100
80
60 No of respondents
Percentage
40
20
0
Good return Future Total
benefit
Inference:-
CHAPTER:-4
4.1) FINDINGS:-
40.7% of respondents would like to suggest others for future benefits. (refer Table
no.18)
I understood the different schemes of mutual fund how these schemes were launched
and designed for customer.
I understood the behavior of the investors how investors are choosing the schemes of
mutual fund.
Through personal observation of small market place, I learnt that investor like a
uniform yield from their investment so they were keen interested in STANDARD
CHARTERED Mutual funds.
In this loomy scenario the investor didn’t want to take any more risk in investment so
they like to invest in mutual fund.
Because of less risk in mutual fund the new investor would like invest in mutual
fund’s schemes.
Mutual fund becomes strong investment alternative for existing and new investors.
4.3) SUGGESTION:-
They should provide more information about their investment product and services
mean they should also concentrate on promotion of their schemes.
The STANDARD CHARTERED Mutual fund should widen their market in Bihar for
next few yrs so they can target investors of that state.
Basically the equity schemes were performing well in market and rest of the schemes
were performing comparative less so they should also change their strategy for other
schemes like debt fund, children gilt fund, and liquid funds.
The STANDARD CHARTERED Mutual fund has competitors like SBI Mutual fund,
ICICI Mutual funds TATA’s mutual funds etc which were performing equivalent to
STANDARD CHARTERED Mutual fund so they should design their product
according to the changes in their schemes and according to the needs of changing
investors.
Retailers to give the right kind of investment pattern for the investors with the value
added services that in fact help the fund house to pull the investors than to push the
products to them.
The retailers need to send the personal mails to the prospects, this can done by
acquiring the database of the customers of home loan, this helps it penetrating.
Company can reduce the initial amount for all the mutual fund schemes; hence they
can cover huge customers.
For effective relationship, company can provide sufficient information about these
schemes, stock market, others information in local languages.
STANDARD CHARTERED Mutual fund has its own image and good will in the
fund market, it should be a continued.
For selling the mutual fund to the customers the FAB concept is the best option to be
followed by the company. The application of FAB concept will really help the company to
boost up its sale of mutual funds to various new customers. This concept will well guide a
way to reach to the maximum of customers.
FAB includes
F – Features
A – Advantages &
B – Benefits
Features: For success of a product, it must have extra new features than existing one.
Advantages: These extra features should provide more advantage to customers in other
ways.
Benefits: One must look that this new features and advantages must benefit the customers
show only the customers will buy the product.
The FABing concept focuses on the quality and new features that aspire customers to buy it.
Aspiration in the customer is the basic flow of motivation to buy any product. Hence the
product should include all the new features of which is more advantageous and benefits to the
customers.
4.5) CONCLUSION:-
Finally I would like to conclude my study by saying that the STANDARD CHARTERED
Mutual fund is one of the fastest growing mutual fund company in India which fulfills the
needs of new and existing investors. The STANDARD CHARTERED Mutual fund also
gives a way to forthcoming investors.
Mutual fund is an emerging investment alternative which has grown so fatly in few decades
and definitely it will be the powerful industry in future.
The mutual fund is one of the safe investment alternative in which the new investor, who
belong to limited salaried group, like to invest in these kind of mutual for steady and limited
yield with limited risk, tax benefit.
Investors are still not very much aware about mutual fund.
Equity fund is most preferable fund.
Advertisement is one of the ways to explore mutual fund.
AMC should be more focuses on fund performance.
The tax benefits on mutual funds made a turning point to its investors.
Company should reduce the initial amount of mutual fund schemes so, it covers lot of
customers.
Banks is most preferable investment on the basis of safety.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Websites:
www.mutualfundsindia.com
www.amfi.com
www.mutualfunds.com
www.bseindia.com
www.sebi.com
www.sebi.gov.in
www.capitalmarket.com
www.moneycontrol.com
www.alliancecapitalindia.com
Books
1. David A.Aker, V.Kumar & George S. Day (2002), John Wiley & Sons, INC, Marketing
research.
Questionnaire:-
1) Name:-
2) Occupation:-
a) 5000-10000
b) 10000-15000
c) 15000-20000
d) More than 20000
4) How much are you saving?
a) 1000-4000
b) 4000-7000
c) 7000-10000
d) More than 10000
5) Do you want to invest?
a) Yes
b) No
c) Can not say
6) Do you know about mutual fund?
a) Yes
b) No
7) Where do you want to invest?
a) Bank deposite
b) Stock market
c) Insurance
d) Mutual fund
e) debenture
f) Derivatives
g) Bonds
a) More return
b) Safety
c) Limited risk
d) Capital appreciation
e) Systematic investment
a) 1000-4000
b) 4000-7000
c) 7000-10000
a) Yes
b) No
a) Yes
b) No
12) If yes , why have you invested in STANDARD CHARTERED mutual fund?
a) Equity scheme
b) Debt scheme
b) Limited investment
c) Proficiency
15) In which scheme of STANDARD CHARTERED Mutual fund would you like to invest?
b) Debt fund
16) In how many schemes of STANDARD CHARTERED Mutual fund would you like to
invest?
a) 1
b) 2
c) 3
d) In all
a) Yes
b) No
18) If you have invested in mutual fund, then in which mutual fund you have invested?
f) Others
19) Would you like to suggest others to invest in STANDARD CHARTERED mutual fund?
a) Yes
b) No
20) If yes, then, for which benefit you suggest other to select the STANDARD
CHARTERED mutual fund?
a) Good return
b) Tax benefit
c) Future benefit
d) Capital appreciation
THANK YOU!!!!