Fund pick: Why UTI Flexi Cap Fund has consistent performance across periods

 A systematic investment plan is a disciplined mode of investing in mutual funds, through which one can invest a certain amount at regular intervals

UTI Flexi Cap Fund, launched in May 1992, has featured in the top 30 percentile of the Flexi-cap fund's category of CRISIL Mutual Funds Ranking (CMFR) for 14 consecutive quarters through September 2021. The fund, managed by Ajay Tyagi since January 2016, has seen its month-end assets under management (AUM) grow to Rs 24,212 crore in October 2021, from Rs 8,345 crore in November 2018.

The investment objective of the fund is to generate long-term capital appreciation by investing predominantly in equity and equity-related securities of companies in a flexible manner across the market capitalization spectrum.

Trailing returns
The fund has outperformed the benchmark Nifty 500 TRI and its peers (funds ranked under the Flexi-cap fund's category in September 2021 CMFR) in the past 1-, 2-, 3-, 5-, 7-, and 10-year trailing periods.

An investment of Rs 10,000 in the fund on August 1, 2005 (inception of growth plan) would have grown to Rs 123,541 on December 2, 2021, clocking an annualized return of 16.62 per cent. In comparison, the category and its benchmark would have increased to Rs 1.07 lakh (15.61 per cent per annum) and Rs 89,586 (14.35 per cent per annum), respectively.

A systematic investment plan is a disciplined mode of investing in mutual funds, through which one can invest a certain amount at regular intervals. A monthly investment of Rs 10,000 in the fund for 10 years through December 2, 2021, totalling Rs 12 lakh, would have grown to Rs 32.30 lakh (19.07 per cent annualized return), compared with Rs 27.83 lakh (16.27 per cent annualized return) in the benchmark.

Aurobindo Pharma, Unichem Laboratories recall products in US market

 Aurobindo Pharma and Unichem Laboratories are recalling different products in the US market, the world's largest market for medicines, due to manufacturing issues.

Aurobindo Pharma and Unichem Laboratories are recalling different products in the US market, the world's largest market for medicines, due to manufacturing issues.

As per the latest enforcement report issued by the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), Aurobindo's US-based unit is recalling 7,296 containers of hypertension drug Carvedilol tablets.

The affected lot contains 6.25 mg Carvedilol tablets, which have been produced in India and distributed in the US by Princeton-based Aurobindo Pharma USA Inc.

The company is recalling the lot due to "failed impurities/degradation specifications", the US health regulator noted in the report. Aurobindo initiated the nationwide recall on November 15 this year, it added.

Another domestic drug maker Unichem Laboratories is recalling 1,284 bottles of Topiramate tablets, used to treat epilepsy (seizures) and to prevent migraines. It is also used in the treatment of Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (a rare, but severe form of epilepsy that starts in early childhood).

The affected lot has been manufactured in Unichem's Ghaziabad-based plant and distributed in the US by New Jersey-based Unichem Pharmaceuticals (USA).

The US health regulator noted that the company is undertaking the voluntary recall of the affected lot due to "Discolouration". The company has initiated the recall process across the US on October 25.

Will there be a Santa Claus rally this December?

 We have seen the market logging gains in the last two December. Will it make a hat-trick of rallies or will the Omicron threat prevail this December? Let's find out what market experts expect

The frontline Sensex has bounced back nearly 1,400 points in two days, staging a recovery from one of the worst bear drubbings in months.
On Thursday, the index ended at 58,461 levels, up 776 points on the BSE, lifted by healthy buying in HDFC twins, RIL, and IT stocks.
The NSE Nifty, on the other hand, is back above the 17,400-mark.
Meanwhile, in the primary market, ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed Star Health and Allied Insurance’s initial public offer closed with a 79% subscription (till 6:30 pm). Among IPOs of more than Rs 5,000-crore plus, Star Health has seen one of the weakest responses.
According to AK Prabhakar, who is head of research at IDBI Capital, Star Health failed to attract investor interest as the valuation seemed rich and left nothing much on the table for investors.
The IPO came at a time when fears of the Omicron Covid variant started. This, he says, may have made investors wary of investing in an insurance-related play.
That said, the IPOs of Anand Rathi Wealth and Tega Industries received a healthy investor response and have already been fully subscribed.
So, will this recovery in the secondary market gain momentum go ahead? Let’s find out.
Despite a 3.8 per cent fall in November, the BSE Sensex stands tall with a 19.5 per cent gain at the start of December 2021.

Over the past 11 months, market participants have negotiated many headwinds successfully such as the rampant spread of a second Covid wave, boiling crude oil prices, inflationary pressures, and fears of policy tightening and withdrawal of government stimulus.

Meta launches new safety initiatives aiming at online protection of women

 A first of its kind platform, NCII.org has partnered with various Indian organisations such as Social Media Matters, Centre for Social Research, and Red Dot Foundation

Meta, the rebranded parent company of Facebook and its apps, on Thursday, announced several initiatives aimed towards the online safety of women, including a project to prevent the spread of non-consensual intimate images.

StopNCII.org is an initiative by Meta to prevent the spread of non-consensual intimate images (NCII), often called “revenge porn”. In partnership with UK Revenge Porn Helpline, StopNCII.org builds on Meta’s NCII Pilot, an emergency programme that allows potential victims to proactively hash their intimate images so they can’t be proliferated on its platforms.

This is a technology that assigns a unique hash value (a numerical code) to an image, creating a secure digital fingerprint. Tech companies participating in StopNCII.org receive the hash and can use that hash to detect if someone has shared or is trying to share those images on their platforms.

A first of its kind platform, NCII.org has partnered with various Indian organisations such as Social Media Matters, Centre for Social Research, and Red Dot Foundation.

The other initiative is a Women’s Safety Hub, launched in Hindi and 11 other Indian languages, which will enable more women users in India to access information about tools and resources that can help them make the most of their social media experience while staying safe online.

The Women’s Safety Hub hosts all the safety resources women need when navigating the platform, including specific resources for women leaders, journalists and survivors of abuse. Additionally, it also contains video-on-demand safety training and allows visitors to register for live safety training hosted in multiple languages.

Flipkart merges depts to create singular growth org under Prakash Sikaria

 Sikaria, who is Senior Vice President - Growth and Monetization, Flipkart, has been with the firm since 2015

E-commerce firm Flipkart is merging its ‘Customer & Marketing Org’ with ‘Growth & Monetisation Org’ to create a singular Flipkart Growth charter under senior company executive Prakash Sikaria, said CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy in a letter addressed to the employees.

Sikaria, who is Senior Vice President - Growth and Monetization, Flipkart, has been with the firm since 2015, and during his time with the company, he has created a significant impact by pioneering and launching impactful initiatives such as Ads, Plus, Super coins, Games, Video, Travel, and social commerce platform Shopsy. In addition to this responsibility, travel platform ClearTrip which was acquired by Flipkart will continue to report to Sikaria.

“With the above change, Karthik Rajeshwaran, Priyanka Bhargav, Manjari Singhal, Rizwan Syed, and Prasanth Naidu will report to Prakesh (Sikaria),” said Krishnamurthy, adding the changes are effective January 1, 2022.

Under Sikaria, an alumnus of IIT Kanpur and Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management, Flipkart is betting big on social commerce, which is the use of social network communities to drive e-commerce sales. Social commerce is expected to be about a $70 billion market opportunity in the next few years. This year, Flipkart launched Shopsy, an app that enables Indians to start their online businesses without any investment.

Credit card spend crosses Rs 1 trillion first time in a month: RBI

 Among major credit card players, ICICI Bank has been the most aggressive

Buoyed by the festival season euphoria, credit card spending for the first time crossed Rs 1 trillion in a month in October, revealed the latest figures released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday.

Spends in October registered a growth of over 25 percent month-on-month, despite a high base of last month. On a year–on–year basis, credit card spending jumped 56 percent. In the corresponding period last year, credit card spending was to the tune of Rs 64,891.96 crore.

The earlier highest one-month spend came in September this year at Rs 80,477.18 crore. The month before, spending was nearly Rs 77,981 crore.

Spends recorded in the past few months have been much higher than that of pre-pandemic levels. In January and February of 2020, credit card spending was Rs 67,402.25 crore and Rs 62,902.93 crore, respectively.

“Credit card spending has been quite robust in the past few months owing to the strong economic rebound. Also, October was a festival month. That could have led to higher growth in credit card spending,” said Suresh Ganapathy, associate director, Macquarie Capital.

Nitin Aggarwal, vice-president, research-banking sector, institutional equities, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said, “Growth in credit card spending in the past few months signals economic revival. Card acquisition rates have picked up, bolstering spending power.”

Apart from online spending, physical spending, too, returned this festival season. This trend may persist, given an under-penetrated credit card market and digital spending seeing growth spurt. Card acquisition should also see double-digit growth, with HDFC Bank back in the market, ICICI Bank and SBI Cards maintaining healthy growth,” added Aggarwal.

Shyam Srinivasan, managing director, and chief executive officer, Federal Bank, said, “Retail loans are growing and so are credit card spending. It is a steady rise, not a wild pattern. The bank will grow the credit card portfolio in a calibrated manner.”

Are India's super rich ring-fencing their wealth using trusts?

 India's super-rich is planning to pass on the reins to the next generation by setting up management trust. Is it to avoid the succession battle or the trust route can better ring-fence their wealth?

Some of India’s biggest business conglomerates were started by families, such as the Tatas, Birlas, and Ambanis. And most of them have gone from strength to strength, thanks to the advantages traditionally enjoyed by the family-run businesses, such as greater stability. But they are also susceptible to succession warfare, which can rip apart a wealthy clan -- for example, consider how things played out between Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani.

This is where the importance of succession planning comes in.

Apart from the feud between the Ambani brothers, the Bajaj family dispute and the Chettinad family dispute are some other examples of how family businesses can end up spending considerable time and resources on such squabbles

But, do family-owned trusts actually stop succession disputes from occurring in the first place. And, just as importantly, do they lead to a clear management structure? Another important factor to be considered is the tax implications.

However, are smooth succession and avoiding feuds the only motives behind adopting this model of governance? The other reasons could be that some fear the re-introduction of an inheritance tax or wish to ring-fence their assets to navigate around bankruptcy laws.

According to the PwC Family Business Survey 2021, just one in every five Indian family businesses has a robust, documented, and communicated succession plan in place. The direction taken by the Ambanis and Shriram groups will inspire others in the country.