Friday, February 20, 2009

Mid, small-caps hurt India funds amid slowdown

Large exposure to mid and small- caps accelerated damages to fund portfolios in 2008 and pose significant risk now as a falling share market cripples trading volumes, making it tough for managers to exit holdings.
For 55 open-ended stock funds, managing more than 400 billion rupees or two-thirds of the assets of diversified equity funds, will take an average 10 days or more to liquidate their holdings of mid and small-cap shares, data from fund tracker ICRA shows.
It may get worse, analysts warn, as investors favour bigger firms considered relatively better placed to survive a downturn, making exits tougher for fund managers who have parked a third of their portfolios in mid and small-cap stocks since at least 2007.
While funds are not facing sharp redemptions yet, industry watchers say investors should be mindful of risks associated with mutual funds that invest mainly in shares of medium and small-sized firms in a slowing economy.
"Liquidity is a risk point that people should consider," said Krishnan Sitaraman, head of fund services at CRISIL. "This could be an issue when redemptions are large-scale."
Less than a fourth of India's open-end diversified stock funds can liquidate portfolios in a day as compared to nearly a third in same period last year, the data showed.
"Risk has gone up... stocks which were relatively liquid have become illiquid because of the volumes declining because of the drastic fall in the market," said Aditya Agarwal, managing director and head of India for fund research firm Morningstar.
Sameer Narayan, head of equity, Fortis Investment Management, said the daily market volume had crashed to almost a tenth to $2.5 billion in the last one year.
However, large cash holdings of the funds may help them meet redemptions in the near-term, all three said.
Equity funds have held an average 16 percent of their assets as cash at the end of January.
"We don't expect any significant crisis in days to come," Sitaraman said.
MID-CAP BETS
Indian funds have historically relied heavily on mid- and small-caps to produce outperformance.
The strategy paid rich dividends in five years ending 2007 when the BSE 500 index rose seven times, far higher than about sixfold gain in the benchmark index.
In 2008, as tide turned against stocks given large-scale sell-offs by foreign portfolio investors, the benchmark index dropped 52 percent, while the BSE 500 index fell 58 percent.
The mid-cap and small-cap indices plunged 67 percent and 72 percent respectively.
Asset values of stock funds fell an average 54.7 percent, losing the entire gain made in the previous two calendar years and recording their worst annual fall, data from global fund tracker Lipper showed.
Analysts say there could still be opportunities to pick multi-baggers among the battered small and mid-caps but as the economy slows further from an expected 7.1 percent growth in 2008/09, many smaller firms are likely to face pressure as debt levels rise and lenders shy away from funding them.
In a research note last week, CLSA said profits of small and mid-caps fell 83 percent in December quarter as compared to a modest 7 percent decline for bluechip firms part of the benchmark index and advised clients to avoid shares of smaller firms.

Are debt funds still hot?

The recent rally in debt funds came as a much-needed relief for investors as well fund houses, which saw their assets under management go up after some time. If you have missed the rally, you might be wondering whether there is still some steam left.
Before deciding on debt fund investment, let us first get a lowdown on the different types of debt funds available in the market. Debt funds are of four types: income or bond funds, liquid or money market funds, floating rate funds, and gilts funds. In terms of risk perspective, any debt fund carries liquidity and interest reinvestment risks, among others.
But income funds—which invest in long- and medium-term instruments like corporate bonds, debentures, fixed deposits, gilts— have an extra element of risk over gilt funds. The additional risk element is known as default risk because technically a government cannot default, though theoretically it can. Income funds that are overweight on corporate bonds carry the risk of default so they should pay that extra risk premium to the investors.
Why mutual fund route?
Lack of awareness about the fixed-income market and its complexities leads most of us to the route of mutual funds. The Indian financial market is predominantly equity driven, with very less information flow and awareness about the fixed-income or the bond market.
In the recent past, gilt funds which invest in central government and the state government papers have outperformed the income funds primarily because of easing inflation and the series of rate cuts. However, as I see, going forward the difference between the returns from these categories should come down. Recently, credit spreads of AAA-rated corporates had reached a level of about 415 bps before falling down to the current levels of 300 bps. Historically, AAA-rated corporate spreads have averaged around 120 bps since 2001. The spread is expected to come down over the next six months or so, as the RBI continues to pursue its monetary easing to tackle the slowdown.
As interest rates soften, the yield of the bonds decrease, but the price tends to increase. Once bond prices rise, this is reflected in a rise in the net asset value of debt funds.
Now, in a falling interest rate scenario, I expect the spreads of higher rated PSU bonds to decline. Further, going forward, lower inflationary expectations, coupled with further monetary easing, should lead to a further decline in gilt yields. This makes a classic case for investment in fixed income market for not-so-aggressive investors. A conservative investor should go for long-term debt funds with an investment horizon of two to three years. Gilt yields are likely to soften again once the RBI goes for more rate cuts. And spreads of the AAA-rated bonds are also likely to come down once economy starts picking up along with global economy.
Key things to watch out
This brings us to some key things to look out while investing in the fixed-income mutual fund. First, investors should look at the quality of the portfolio of the fund as times are extraordinary now. A portfolio with more than 20 per cent exposure in gilt and more than 35 per cent of weightage in PSU bonds would be preferable. With the collapse of big institutions globally and expectation of rough times ahead, quality of the portfolio can make huge difference for any scheme.
It is also important to check the track record of the fund manager. In any mutual fund, the record of the fund manager along with the discipline of the fund house is very important. Prudent fund management should help in reducing risks.
Choosing between a between gilt and an income fund would depend upon the risk appetite of any investor.
Finally, the tax angle: For individual investors, long-term capital gains from debt funds are taxed by 11.33 per cent without indexation and 22.66 per cent with indexation. And dividend distribution tax is 14.16 per cent for debt funds.