scorecardresearchFund managers advise investment in dynamic bond funds amid rate hike environment:

Fund managers advise investment in dynamic bond funds amid rate hike environment: Report

Updated: 24 Jun 2022, 11:43 AM IST
TL;DR.

These are mutual fund (MF) schemes that take exposure to debt securities with wide-ranging maturities and fund managers of such schemes alter allocations depending on their interest-rate outlook, noted the report.

These are mutual fund (MF) schemes that take exposure to debt securities with wide-ranging maturities and fund managers of such schemes alter allocations depending on their interest-rate outlook, noted the report.

These are mutual fund (MF) schemes that take exposure to debt securities with wide-ranging maturities and fund managers of such schemes alter allocations depending on their interest-rate outlook, noted the report.

With rate hikes likely to continue in the near future after the reserve Bank of India (RBI) already raised policy rates twice since May, fund managers are advising investors to consider investments in dynamic bond funds, a report by Business Standard said.

These are mutual fund (MF) schemes that take exposure to debt securities with wide-ranging maturities and fund managers of such schemes alter allocations depending on their interest-rate outlook, noted the report.

“After more than a 100-basis point (bp) sell-off in the bond market over the past year, the return potential of debt funds has improved significantly. We suggest investors increase allocation to dynamic bond funds in a staggered manner with a two- to three-year holding period,” says Pankaj Pathak, fund manager-fixed income, Quantum MF told BS.

In May, the RBI increased the rates by 40 bps and then another 50 bps in its June monetary policy.

As per BS, fund managers are not looking to increase maturities due to expectations of further rate hikes; at present, they see value in bonds maturing between three and five years. The report explained that if yields move up further, as expected by fund managers, medium- to short-duration funds will be less volatile, compared to long-duration ones.

“We used the recent rise in bond yields to deploy portfolio cash into three- to five-year government bonds. For the core portfolio, we continue to like three- to five-year maturity bonds, which, in our opinion, offer a critical balance between duration and accrual yield,” added Pathak.

It is important to note that, typically, the prices of fixed-income securities are dictated by prevailing interest rates and that interest rates and prices are inversely proportional. When interest rates decline, the prices of fixed-income securities increase. Similarly, when interest rates are hiked, the prices of fixed-income securities come down.

Business Standard pointed out that in the past year, such funds, on average, have given returns of 2.02 percent, while in the three-year period, they have managed to give returns of 5.6 percent. Some funds in the category have given returns in the range of 3-6 percent in the past year, it added.

Dynamic bond funds are typically more volatile than short-duration and medium-duration debt funds, however, they also have the potential to give superior returns across different interest-rate scenarios over higher investment tenures, the report further said.

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Role of bonds in portfolio.
First Published: 24 Jun 2022, 11:43 AM IST