H ave a query regarding mutual funds? Maybe we can help.

Drop us a line and our expert, Anil Rego of Right Horizons, will answer it.

Got a question for Anil Rego? Please write to us at getahead@rediff.co.in with the subject line as ‘Mutual fund query’.

I had invested in Income Fund Birla half yearly Dividend option Plan A in Jan.2009. Till date my investment has not come at par. What do you advise.

Anil. Income funds have gradually lost flavour with the interest rates making a turnaround, we suggest you to exit the same and plough in the same into equities, at dips. This will help gain returns over a medium term, given the outlook remains positive. However, we reiterate that Income funds and equities are of different asset classes.

Sir, Pl. suggest 4/5 good & aggressive large cap & midcap funds in the time horizon of 5 years to invest through SIP.

Anil. Largecap funds:

• DSP BR Top 100
• HDFC Top 200
• Birla Sunlife Frontline Equity

Midcap funds:

• Reliance Regular Savings Equity
• Reliance Growth
• SBNPP Select Midcap

• Birla Sunlife Midcap

Largecap funds are inherently less prone to risk, hence defensive by nature. Midcap funds are aggressive and of higher risk profile.

I want to invest in 6 different funds with Rs.2000 in each fund each month for 15 years, is it advisable or will it be better to invest in 3 funds like Kotak K30, HDFC Top200, Birla Sunlife Frontline Equity, SBI Contra, ICICI Dynamic etc.

Please suggest 10 best performing funds in which I can invest for long term, say, 15-20 years.

Secondly, should I go with financial advisors like Dawney Day AV etc. or should I go directly to Financial Institutes? According to the advisors, the entry load 2.25% is going to be waived off w.e.f. 15th Jul’09. Is there any notification regarding this?

Please guide me.

Arindam Mukhopadhyay

Anil. Largecap funds:

• DSP BR Top 100
• HDFC Top 200
• Birla Sunlife Frontline Equity

Midcap funds:

• Reliance Regular Savings Equity
• Reliance Growth
• SBNPP Select Midcap
• Birla Sunlife Midcap

For the monthly investment of Rs. 12k, we can use not more than 4 funds — with diversification amongst Equity MF — largecap, midcap and Gold MF.

You can use a financial advisor who will be able to help you choose the funds, also will effectively monitor them. If you are able to monitor yourself and have some expertise in markets, then you can look at doing it on your own.  The entry load is scrapped w.e.f 01 Aug 09.

I am an NRI working in Oman. I would like to inform you that I have two MF schemes:

Sundaram BNP Select Focus Growth and

Reliance Infrastructure — Growth (the latest scheme)

Above both taken at one time purchase (not SIP). If I have to take some SIP considering long time which one I should buy considering that I invest Rs 2000 per month?

Anil. You can initiate SIP into SBNPP Select Focus and Reliance Regular Savings Equity: one which is largecap and the other is midcap. We do not suggest addition of sector funds in your portfolio at this stage.