Mutual funds meet in Delhi

A national summit on the emerging role of mutual funds in wealth management, organised by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), will be held here on Saturday.

SK Jindal, chairman, committee on investments and capital markets, Assocham, said the seminar would attempt to increase awareness about mutual funds among the investing community.

"India significantly lags behind other advanced economies in terms of total investible funds and the retail investor base," he said.

While UTI Mutual Fund Chairman M Damodaran and former Securities and Exchange Board of India Chairman DR Mehta will specially address the seminar on the opening day, Finance Secretary DC Gupta will deliver the keynote speech.

Moreover, chief executives of several mutual funds, including DSP Merrill Lynch, Prudential ICICI, HDFC Mutual Fund, Birla Sunlife and JM Mutual Fund, will discuss issues ranging from hybrid funds, portfolio allocation and wealth creation.

Value Research Chief Executive Dhirendra Kumar said fixed income funds accounted for about 80 per cent of the total assets under management. Kumar further said rough estimates indicated that mutual funds had about 150 million portfolio files, which indicated the strength of mutual fund retail investors.

"However, there may be investors who have subscribed to schemes in more than one fund. Thus, there is likely to be some double counting," he said.