UTI Mutual Fund has approved Feb.10, 2010 as the record date for declaration of dividend under dividend option of UTI Fixed Income Interval Fund - Series II Quarterly Interval Plan V. The quantum of dividend will be 100% of distributable surplus as on the record date.

This scheme is a Close Ended Income scheme. The new fund offer starts from 5th February, 2010 to 10th February, 2010.

Kotak Mutual Fund has approved Feb.9, 2010 as the record date for declaration of dividend under option of Kotak Quarterly Interval Plan Series 6. The quantum of dividend will be up-to 100% of distributable surplus available as on the record date.

At a time when the mutual fund industry is witnessing net outflows in most categories, monthly income plans (MIPs) are seeing sizeable inflows, as fund houses and distributors are actively promoting these schemes. Industry estimates suggest that MIPs have been collecting Rs 1,500-1,800 crore monthly since October 2009. Although the product has been there for some time, fund houses had started to market it aggressively only recently. They are paying as much as 1.25 per cent to distributors as commission. The commission for most equity products is 50-75 basis points (bps).

Religare Mutual Fund has filed an offer document with SEBI for continuous offer of units of Religare Mid Cap Fund, an open ended equity scheme. The offer document of the scheme is after conversion into open ended scheme. The scheme would offer units at NAV based prices. The investment objective of the scheme is to provide long term capital appreciation by investing in a portfolio that is predominantly constituted of equity and equity related instruments of mid cap companies.

About two months after their launch, activity on mutual fund (MF) platforms of stock exchanges remains comatose, as investors continue to stick to the age-old system of buying and selling products through distributors. One reason for this is over half of the asset management companies (AMCs) are yet to list their products on stock exchanges. But more significantly, most stock brokers are less enthusiastic about providing services to transact mutual fund schemes through the new platform.

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund has approved Feb.8, 2010 as the record date for declaration of dividend under dividend option of ICICI Prudential Interval Fund II - Quarterly Interval Plan B. The quantum of dividend will be 100% of distributable surplus as on the record date.

The Fear of massive outflows from mutual funds (MFs) has started bothering asset management companies after the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi's) order on short-term debt funds. Sebi has said that all short-term debt securities and money market instruments, underlying all liquid and liquid plus schemes of MFs, should be marked to market (MTM).

Taurus Mutual Fund announced the launch of their close - ended debt scheme- Taurus Fixed Maturity Plan 15 Months - Series I. This fund is open for subscription from Feb. 04, 2010 to Feb. 08, 2010.

HDFC Mutual Fund has approved Feb.8, 2010 as the record date for declaration of dividend under dividend option in retail and wholesale plan of HDFC Quarterly Interval Fund - Plan C (open-ended interval income scheme). The quantum of dividend will be 100% of distributable surplus as on the record date.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India directed mutual funds to mark-to-market debt and money market securities with residual maturity of 91 days. The market regulator has said that the mutual funds will have to value papers of up to 91 days at weighted average price. The regulator, in a circular posted on its website, also asked mutual fund firms to disclose transaction details on a daily basis, including inter scheme transfers. The new valuation norms debt and money market securities say that these securities in mutual fund portfolios will now be marked to market (traded securities) or valued by rating agencies (non-traded ones). The changes will come into effect from July 1.

The country's mutual fund industry witnessed a decline in the average assets under management, for the second month in a row, to Rs 7.61 lakh crore in January. The industry's average AUM fell by Rs 32,853.79 crore or 4.13 percent during the said month. The combined average AUM of the 37 fund houses stood at Rs 7,61,632.26 crore at the end of January, according to a data released by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI).

Reliance MF maintained its numero uno position as the country's largest fund house with an AUM of Rs 1,17,248.56 crore during the month, despite losing Rs 2,733.22 crore from its assets. Marketmen said that fall in assets of mutual funds was due to correction in the equity market in the past month in addition to banks opting to remain away from mutual funds.

Reliance MF was followed by the country's second largest fund house HDFC MF's AUM that witnessed an erosion of Rs 2,386.83 crore. HDFC MF, which saw its AUM in November cross the Rs 1- lakh crore mark, had average assets worth Rs 94,797.01 crore at January end. The country's third largest fund house, ICICI Prudential MF, saw its AUM falling by Rs 4,059.86 crore during the month to Rs 78,372.38 crore.

Reliance Mutual Fund has approved Feb.5, 2010 as the record date for declaration of dividend under dividend option in retail and institutional plan of Reliance Interval Fund - Quarterly Interval Fund - Series II (debt oriented interval scheme). The quantum of dividend will be 100% of distributable surplus as on the record date.

Sundaram BNP Paribas Mutual Fund has declared a dividend of 15% under the dividend option of Sundaram BNP Paribas Select Mid Cap (open ended equity fund). The record date for the dividend is February 05, 2010.

Mutual funds refrained from purchasing fresh papers on expectation the rates would rise by the end of this month once the two-staged Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) takes effect, dealers said. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had, in its third-quarter Annual Policy Statement for 2009-10 (April-March) Friday, increased banks' CRR by 75 basis points (bps). The first stage of 50 bps CRR hike will become effective February 13 and 25 bps on February 27, draining Rs 36,000 crore out of the system.

Fortis Mutual Fund has announced that the New Fund Offer (NFO) period of Fortis Fixed Term Fund - Series 16 C is extended from 2 February 2010 to 9 February 2010. Fortis Fixed Term Fund - Series 16 C, a 369 day close ended income scheme has the investment objective to achieve growth of capital through investments made in a basket of fixed income securities maturing on or before the maturity of the Scheme. All other terms and conditions of scheme remain unchanged.

IDFC Mutual Fund has decided to introduce Daily Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) for all the schemes under which SIP facility is already available. Daily SIP facility will be available only on mutual fund business day. The minimum number of installments under the SIP facility shall be six. All the other features like minimum SIP amount, load structure, applicable NAV, etc. shall remain the same for as set out in the offer document and scheme information document of the respective schemes. This facility will be available for the investors with effect from 01st February, 2010.

This scheme is a Close Ended Income scheme. The new fund offer starts from 1st February, 2010 to 2nd February, 2010.

Is it prudent to keep your money in a tax-saving mutual fund scheme beyond the mandatory lock-in period of three years? A large number of investment experts think otherwise. They believe that transferring the money from a tax-saving scheme to a diversified scheme after the lock-in period would help you as an investor to maximize your returns as most tax-saving schemes are trailing diversified schemes on returns posted in the three- and five-year periods. Tax-saving schemes or equity-linked saving schemes (ELSS) qualify for deduction of up to Rs 1 lakh under section 80C of the I-T Act.

Sundaram BNP Paribas Mutual Fund has launched a new fund named as Sundaram BNP Paribas Monthly Income Plan (MIP) - Conservative & Aggressive Plans, an open ended income scheme. The new issue is open for subscription from 25 January 2010 and closes on 23 February 2010.