MFs file papers with Sebi for 100 new offerings in 2015

 With rising demand from retail investors for mutual fund schemes, the draft papers by fund houses filed with capital markets regulator Sebi for launching New Fund Offers have gone as high as 100 since January.

The documents for these 100 NFOs have been submitted with the Securities and Exchange Board of India since the beginning of this year.

Some of these NFOs have already been launched, while other schemes would be opened for subscription soon after getting the necessary clearances.

UTI MF, Axis MF, ICICI Prudential MF, Birla Sunlife MF, and SBI MF are among the fund houses that are offering NFOs to investors.

A large number of these schemes are aimed at investment in equity and equity-related securities. Besides, the schemes are focused on debt fund, hybrid fund and Fixed Maturity Plan.

Manufacturing, economic recovery, resurgence of the business cycle, e-commerce and retirement, are some of the themes that are attracting mutual fund houses.

According to market participants, fund houses are rushing to Sebi to launch new schemes with growing interest among retail investors for mutual fund schemes. Recent fund launches have also received good response from investors.

Also, they said that the NFO market has picked up as the investors' confidence about equity markets is back and participation from retail investors is also on upswing.

In the past one year, several funds gave more than the index returns. This has brought retail investors' interest back into equities and they started participating through mutual funds, market participants added. 

Greece may cause churn in Indian stocks, debt market: Assocham

 The fallout of Greece crisis has largely been factored in by markets even though an immediate jolt is not ruled out and India can be impacted with upheavals expected in stocks and debt markets, Assocham has said.

"For some time, the markets would stay in a state of flux and the rupee may lose ground if situation in Greece worsens," Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said.

Greece is currently facing a payment crisis, which is scheduled to repay a debt of USD 1.8 billion to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on June 30, but it's believed that the country does not have the money to pay.

It becomes, therefore, imperative that "India should ring-fence itself as much as possible" by guarding its financial institutions and limiting exposure to countries where the impact of the crisis could be felt more.

"In a tumultuous global situation... We need to double our efforts to strengthen our economy in terms of domestic demand, investment and cleaning up the bottlenecks. Not only big-time investments should be announced, but also big-ticket projects should get off the ground," the industry said.

It suggested that while RBI should keep a close watch on the currency movement, the government should keep up efforts towards improving supply side to tackle inflationary issues.

However, with the monsoon making a decent progress, the prospects of rural economy look far better today than about two weeks ago.

"In the worst-case scenario for Greece, Indian exports to Europe may take a hit, but the world out there is much more prepared today than was the case in 2008 when the crisis was triggered by the Lehman Brothers collapse," Rawat said. 

Sensex rebounds 166 points; capital goods, realty stocks rally

 After taking a day's breather, the market on Thursday continued its upward journey with the benchmark BSE Sensex rebounding 166 points to 27,895.97 on buying in capital goods, realty and banking shares.

Ignoring Greek woes, the index recorded its ninth rise in last 10 sessions.

Besides, covering-up of short positions by speculators on expiry of June month series in the derivative contracts supported today's rally.

Globally, other Asian markets ended lower, while European stocks were little changed in their early trade as investors awaited progress in Greek talks.

In volatile movements, the 30-share BSE index opened lower at 26,660.22 and eased to touch the day's low of 27,635.76 in early trade. However, it bounced back to trade in positive terrain on across-the-board buying in blue-chip stocks to hit a high of 27,968.75 before winding up 166.30 points or 0.60 percent higher at 27,895.97.

Yesterday, the had Sensex lost 74.70 points.

The 50-share NSE Nifty after regaining the 8,400-level, scaled session's high of 8,423.15, before settling 37.15 points, or 0.44 percent higher at 8,398.

The recovery in the Sensex was supported by gains in Bajaj Auto that climbed 4.65 percent, while GAIL surged 3.44 percent. L&T advanced 3.28 percent and HDFC Bank 1.93 percent.

Among sectoral indices, BSE capital goods index gained the most by surging 2.12 percent, followed by realty 1.05 percent.

The broader markets also performed well on good buying by retail investors. The BSE mid-cap and the small-cap indices rose by 0.68 percent and 0.23 percent, respectively.

Stocks of mortgage lenders were in good demand on hopes the government's move on housing would improve their earnings.

HDFC rose by 2.20 percent, LIC Housing gained 0.55, while Dewan Housing up 2.41 percent.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today unveiled three mega flagship urban schemes aimed at developing cities as engines of growth.

Meanwhile, foreign investors bought shares worth Rs 92.57 crore yesterday.