Despite the market not delivering any returns in the last 18 months, investors have shown a lot of maturity during this period by consistently putting more money into equity funds, said Vishal Kapoor, CEO, Bandhan MF, in an interview with Business Standard.
He pointed out that this was not the case in such market phases previously.
"If you look at the systematic investment plan (SIP) data for the last year or so, the monthly collections have consistently gone up. Even in February, when the market was volatile, investors poured in a net of ₹15,700 crore into equity funds. Investors have started seeing equity funds as a long-term investment product meant to achieve a goal in the future," he said.
Commenting on debt fund outflows despite higher rates, the market expert told BS that the money went out of debt funds post Covid due to high inflation and low interest rates. But the prospects of rate hikes and the subsequent mark-to-market losses also made investors jittery. This forced investors to stay away from debt funds and now that there's a belief in the market that most of the rate hike is behind us, he believes that investors may soon re-allocate money to debt.
IDFC Mutual fund was renamed Bandhan Mutual Fund in January 2023 after the Bandhan-led consortium acquired the firm. With the acquisition of IDFC MF and re-branding now over, Bandhan MF will look for renewed growth momentum by investing in focus areas like expanding physical presence and leveraging technology, noted Kapoor.
"We are seeking commitment from shareholders to invest more heavily in growth areas, which includes expanding to new markets and also strengthening our presence in the existing ones. There are also plans to invest heavily in technology and leverage it for both distribution and tapping new product ideas. We also intend to invest more in fund managers and analysts. These plans will get into motion now that the branding is complete," he told BS.
He also pointed out that fund performances are cyclical in nature. At any given point in time, a fund house's certain schemes are seen doing well, others not. This is because a scheme's performance depends on which part of the market is moving in which direction. The idea is to remain grounded and keep improving, he added.
