Mutual fund investment calls for some elementary level of understanding and financial knowledge of stock market functioning. As an investor, your job does not end at mere planning and investing in mutual funds. One needs to regularly monitor their investments to ensure that their investments are on track in achieving their financial objectives. Regular overview and analysis of your investment portfolio will help you to evaluate whether your investments have performed as speculated or if they continue to be a stagnant loss. This article aims to deliver a few public disclosures by fund houses or AMCs (asset management companies) mandated by the Indian regulator – Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) that offers deep insights on to how to plan and monitor your mutual fund investments.
Monthly portfolio
AMCs are required to publish the portfolio of all mutual fund schemes on a monthly basis. This monthly portfolio comprises of list of investments that a particular scheme has invested in and their weightage composition and other scheme related information. This is known as a fund fact sheet, commonly known as fact sheets. It helps investors to analyse the risk composition of a portfolio.
CAS
Consolidated Account Statement or CAS is a single or combined account statement that comprises of details of all the financial transactions and holdings across all mutual funds and other securities held in dematerialized mode made by an investor in any particular month. To ensure that all investors are able to handle the information regarding mutual funds, SEBI has mandated all AMCs to obtain a CAS. As an investor, you can opt for CAS report on a monthly basis or half-yearly basis, according to your convenience.
Daily NAV
Net Asset Value (NAV) represents the value of a fund’s per share market value. All fund and AMCs are mandated to publish daily NAV of all mutual fund schemes on their websites and that of AMFI’s (Association of Mutual Funds in India) at the end of the day. The NAV of a fund can be used to determine the value of an investment.
Key changes to fund
In situations when the key attributes of a scheme changes, an email is generally sent to investors about it. These changes have the potential to affect the performance of the fund. Hence, it becomes essential to evaluate the scheme. For many such changes in the scheme, SEBI has mandated fund houses to provide an exit option to their investors.
Using mutual fund tracking websites
A lot can be deduced about the performance of a scheme by comparing it to other funds in the same peer group. There are several aggregator websites that offer information about the same. As an investor, you can also upload the details of your investment and get a clear picture of your scheme’s performance.
If you are still unsure, you might want to approach a fund advisor or mutual fund expert. A fund manager will analyse, invest, and monitor your mutual fund investments on your behalf. Happy investing!