Equity Mutual Funds:
Inflows into India’s equity mutual funds rose 17% sequentially to a record high of Rs 40,608 crore in June, data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) showed recently.
- Equity Mutual Funds is a type of investment fund that pools money from investors to trade primarily a portfolio of stocks, also known as equity securities.
- They are also known as Growth Funds.
- Equity Funds are either Active or Passive.
- In an Active Fund, a fund managerscans the market, conducts research on companies, examines performance and looks for the best stocks to invest.
- In a Passive Fund, the fund manager builds a portfolio that mirrors a popular market index, say Sensex or Nifty Fifty.
- The fund manager has a passive role in stock selection.
- Buy, hold, or sell decisions aredriven by the benchmark index, and the fund manager merely needs to replicate the same with minimal tracking error.
- Equity Funds can also be divided as per Market Capitalisation, i.e., how much the capital market values an entire company’s equity.
- There can be Large Cap, Mid Cap, Small or Micro Cap Funds.
- There can be a further classification as Diversified or Sectoral / Thematic.
- In the former, the scheme invests in stocks across the entire market spectrum, while in the latter, it is restricted to only a particular sector or theme, say, Infotech or Infrastructure.
