Mutual Fund Summit Live: Rising gold and silver prices make Indians feel poorer, not richer, says Navneet Munot of HDFC AMC

Akhil Chaturvedi, ED & CBO, Motilal Oswal believes that investors in India are more mature now and don’t panic if there is a decline in the markets. Read More

HDFC AMC's managing director and chief executive Navneet Munnot believes that gold and silver doesn't have the same wealth effect in India as other asset classes. Read More

There are over 1.7 lakh distributors in the country. These distributors are not coming from the top 8 metro cities. 50 percent of them are coming from big 30 cities. Today if you see the investors are coming from 19,000 pin codes across the country. So it is not polarised towards metros and it is very much diversified.

Today we 5.7 crore big investors across the industry. Out of these 50 percent have come in the last 4-5 years.

What the industry has seen in the last 40 years has happened in the last 4 years. Investor behaviour has changed and tech is playing a key role.

And the interesting statistics is that 70 percent of the investors are below the age of 30 years. So definitely interest is there, behaviour has changed and technology is also playing an important role

Periods of uncertainty often present the best opportunities to generate alpha — or market-beating returns — said Deepak Shenoy, CEO of Capitalmind. Read More

Sandeep Jethwani of Dezerv : The value for human engagement will become much more so I am actually optimistic about how AI can enable human advice

The Indian equity market is currently in a phase of consolidation, driven by a temporary loss of economic momentum and elevated investor expectations, said Anish Tawakley, Co-Chief Investment Officer (Equity), ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company. Read More

The minimum investment threshold was earlier as high as $75,000 to $250,000, with an overall Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) limit of $250,000 per year. Now, retail funds launched from GIFT City have reduced the minimum investment to as low as $5,000 or $10,000, making global investing far more accessible to Indian investors. Read More

While the launch of retail funds from GIFT City has opened new avenues for Indian investors to access global markets, challenges persist — particularly in fund transfers under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS), said Vaibhav Shah, Head – Products, Business Strategy & International Business at Mirae Asset Investment Managers. Read More

Harsha Upadhyaya, Chief Investment Officer, Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company (AMC), believes that foreign investor flows alone cannot determine the direction of Indian equity markets. Read More

The Indian defence sector is set for sustained long-term growth, with more companies expected to list and expand the investment universe, according to Harsha Upadhyaya, Chief Investment Officer of Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company (AMC). Read More

Sandeep Jethwani : There is a lot of intangible work that we are able to do as a result of India's digital public infrastructure, some of the investments that we are making in the user experience, which in turn, is helping trust build. And once trust builds, it compounds.

Sandeep Jethwani of Dezerv: Technology has a big role now for us to help people figure out what is the right combination of portfolios

Akhil Cahturvedi: There was a phase when markets used to fall, we would see domination of sips, redemption from MFs. But in the last five years, what we have seen is that incrementally, that is not what is happening.

Akhil Chaturvedi: We are seeing a lot of demand for index funds, gold and silver, ETFs.

Akhil Chaturvedi: The principles of asset allocation to be incorporated by all our distribution partners out here in client portfolio, they should have something of everything, so that after one year, there is no FOMO that I didn't have gold or silver or equity.

Akhil Chaturvedi: We now have one and a half million Indians who have a million dollar and more of net worth. So this, part of population is growing at a very fast pace and this is where the demand is coming for AIFs.

Navneet Munot: Mutual fund is growing as a percentage of bank deposits over the last 10 years, but between 2016 and now fixed income and money market AUM, as a percentage of bank deposits, has actually gone down.

Navneet Munot : If you look at the household balance sheet in India, 50% is real estate. 15% is gold, 15% is bank deposits, and equities is less than 6%. This number was two and a half percent 10 years back.

Navneet Munot: MF industry has moved from, like, a product led to a more solution led.

Navneet Munnot: This nation is transforming from a nation of savers to a nation of invest and nation of savers. People are lot more optimistic, aspirational and ambitious. The people want to create wealth, and they are exploring many things today.

Navneet Munot : India is a compounding story. Other than United States, there are very few places in the world which are a compounding story.

Navneet Munnot: There is more maturity among the investors and even the advisors and distributors everybody. I've made everybody has been advocating for staying for remaining invested for longer term rather than keep chasing these short term performance.

Navneet Munnot: Unlike other asset classes, gold and silver doesn't create the positive wealth effect in India. We sound very counter intuitive, because when gold and silver prices are going up, regardless of the amount of gold and silver you have in your house or locker, you feel poorer. Because you think that I'm going to buy more and I have to buy more and my next purchase is going to be higher.

Harsha Upadhyaya, CIO of Kotak Mahindra AMC, said foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have been minimal participants in Indian markets over the past two to three years, yet equities have continued to perform strongly.

Harsha Upadhyaya: This trend shows market performance is not solely driven by FII flows and that domestic factors play an increasingly important role.

Harsha Upadhyaya: Investors should not base their strategies entirely on FII activity, as flows alone do not determine market direction.

Deepak Shenoy, CEO of Capitalmind, said alpha is created when markets are uncertain, allowing investors to take long-term positions ahead of clarity.

Deepak  Shenoy: Six months ago, when earnings were weak, early indicators pointed to a potential turnaround in segments of the economy such as consumer durables and defence.

Deepak Shenoy: The leaders of yesterday will not be the leaders of tomorrow,” underscoring the need for investors to plan with a long-term perspective.

Anish Tawakley:  Cyclical sectors such as industrials, capital goods, automobiles, and select areas of financials, which could benefit from an economic recovery.

Anish Tawakley: There were no fundamental issues with the economy, growth momentum had moderated but is expected to recover.

Anish Tawakley: Earlier high earnings growth, driven by post-slump recovery, had peaked, leading to a slowdown in revenue growth and a compression in margins.

Anish Tawakley : The past year was a period of consolidation driven by two key factors — a temporary slowdown in economic momentum and elevated market expectations

Neil Parekh: Currency risk is an inherent part of global investing and cannot be entirely eliminated.

Neil Parekh: Asset managers can mitigate this risk by carefully selecting stocks and maintaining diversified portfolios

Vaibhav Shah: Once these banking and transfer issues are resolved, retail participation could expand significantly, attracting substantial capital through the GIFT City route

Vaibhav Shah: Challenges remain as all investments currently fall under the LRS (Liberalised Remittance Scheme) window.

Vaibhav Shah: Significant investor education will be needed to help retail participants understand the LRS process and navigate global investment options through GIFT City.

Neil Parikh: The growing opportunity in retail funds, with minimum investments now as low as $5,000 to $10,000 — a significant shift from the earlier $75,000–$250,000 range.

Neil Parikh: Lower entry point aligns with India’s TCS threshold of Rs10 lakh, allowing smaller investors to participate without incurring additional tax collection at source.

Neil Parikh: Investors today seek diversification not only across markets but also across currencies, reflecting evolving global investment needs.

Vaibhav Shah: Competing with financial hubs like Singapore, Mauritius and Dubai requires a jurisdiction that facilitates both foreign capital inflows and outbound investments by Indian residents.

D P Singh: We have seen that whenever we launch a product 40% of the customers are those which are new to the industry.

Sandeep Tandon: If you are getting a shorting opportunity can generate a positive return

D P Singh: Even SIF goes down it will definitely be arbitrage plus

Sandeep Tandon: It is our endeavor to generate small alpha over your equity scheme with limited risk.

Our target is to generate a return of somewhere between 8-12%, says D P Singh of  SBI Mutual Fund

D P Singh: We will not keep the naked position more than 10% of the fund right

Sandeep Tandon: In next 10 years see it as 40-50 % of the active equity mutual fund

D P Singh: We took baby steps. We started with hybrid category. Within one year from here it should Rs 1,00,000 lakh category

D P Singh: Through SIF evolved investors are allowed to use derivates and other modern tools