Liquid Mutual Funds
- Liquid Mutual Funds
- No Exit Load, No Lock-In Period
- Invest One Time or in SIP
- Handpicked Funds for Great Returns
- Free Lifetime DEMAT Account
Free Lifetime DEMAT Account
Liquid Fund Name | 3-Year Return | 5-Year Return |
---|---|---|
UTI Liquid Fund | 7.25% | 7.8% |
ICICI Prudential Liquid Fund | 7.22% | 7.8% |
Kotak Liquid Fund | 7.2% | 7.78% |
Axis Liquid Fund | 7.26% | 7.82% |
Aditya Birla Sun Life Liquid Fund | 7.26% | 7.84% |
Reliance Liquid Fund | 7.25% | 7.82% |
HSBC Cash Fund | 7.27% | 7.82% |
Indiabulls Liquid Fund | 7.37% | 7.95% |
Essel Liquid Fund | 7.41% | 7.96% |
*ORDER does not indicate a ranking of the funds.
What is a Liquid Mutual Fund?
Liquid mutual funds are simply put, financial instruments who’s portfolio consists of short-term high-credit quality fixed income earning money market instruments like a certificate of deposit, commercial paper, treasury bills among others. Basically speaking, liquid mutual funds are a type of debt mutual funds which are invested in extremely low-risk financial instruments. Liquid Mutual Funds invest in financial instruments with a maturity of up to 91 days. In most cases, the maturity is much lower than the prescribed limit.
This is a mutual fund category which has been deemed to be among one of the safest and the least volatile due to two reasons:
- This mutual fund scheme only invests in financial instruments with a credit rating (P1+)This is a mutual fund category which has been deemed to be among one of the safest and the least volatile due to two reasons:
- Volatility is less owing to the fact that the only change in NAV is as a result of the interest income that is received.
The short term maturity of these instruments means that these are hardly traded in the market. These funds are generally held until their maturity. In lieu of these factors, the NAV or Net Asset Value of these funds only sees a change to the extent of interest income accrued, every day, including weekends.
When to Invest in Liquid Funds?
Ideally, liquid funds are best suited for individuals who have had a sudden influx of cash. It should, however, be noted that the liquid funds are not to be used as a substitute for a saving bank account. The money in liquid funds cannot be withdrawn instantly as you do in an ATM with a savings account. Liquid Funds should generally be used in order to achieve the short term targets. It is not advisable or considered the safe practice to keep all your emergency funds in the liquid funds because in case of emergency these funds can’t be withdrawn immediately. It takes one day to release these funds.
The low-interest rates on these funds ( 4-7%) and in the short term, putting your funds in a liquid fund scheme can prove to be very beneficial in order to gain higher interest and returns. If you have a sudden windfall of monetary resources you can consider putting them in a liquid fund.
The nature of the investment portfolio allocation has been designed in a way to minimize risk/volatility provided the investment has been made in funds with AAA or AA rating.
Benefits of Liquid Fund
Low Risk
Liquid Funds are essentially one of the mutual fund schemes with the lowest amount of risk involved with them. This low risk and volatility come owing to the low maturity period in addition to the fact that the investment portfolio of this fund essentially consists of high-credit instruments.
High Liquidity
Liquid Funds as the name suggests are particularly high on liquidity allowing investors to redeem investments as and when required. The credit of the redemption of the units of the liquid funds is credited to the account in 1-2 days
Instant Redemption
There are some liquid funds which facilitate the instant redemption of the acquired mutual fund units/ NAVs. This basically means in these funds, redeeming the units online will yield the proceeds in your bank account instantly. There is, however, a maximum capping amount for instant redemption of money into your account. The Securities Exchange Board of India has set a cap of ₹ 50,000 or 90% of the portfolio, whichever is lower. Some of the investment schemes in the liquid mutual funds have the provision of being linked debit cards such as Reliance Mutual Fund . The withdrawals of the following can be made under the Reliance Any Time Money Card:
50% balance in the Reliance Liquid Fund Account or Permissible Limits as judged appropriate by the operating bank or ₹50,000 whichever is lower at a VISA Enabled ATM.
Taxation of Liquid Funds
The liquid mutual funds are essentially a type of debt fund which means that these funds attract capital gains taxation. The tax rate depends upon the holding period (time of investment in the financial instrument) of these funds. If the holding period of the funds is less than 3 years or 36 months, the fund will be eligible for a Short Term Capital Gains Tax (STCG). If the period is greater than 36 months, the mutual fund scheme investment will be eligible for a Long-Term Capital Gains Tax.
STCG- Charged as per the Slab Rate (Could be as high as 30% )
STCG- Charged as per the Slab Rate (Could be as high as 30% )
Indexation is basically a measure to account for a reduction in your tax liabilities owing to inflation.
Considerations before Investing
Fund Objectives
Liquid funds have been judged to be the least risky of all the debt funds available in the market. The maturity of the underlying assets in these schemes mature within a time-frame of 60-91 days and due to this, the net NAV of these funds doesn’t fluctuate that frequently. Somehow, this means that the underlying asset price fluctuations do not impact the fund NAV too much. There is, however, a chance of a drop in the NAV if the credit rating of the fund sees a sudden downgrade in the credit rating of the security. This essentially means that the liquid funds are not a risk-free investing instrument.
Funds Expected Returns
Generally, liquid funds have a return between 7-9%. The returns are significantly higher in comparison to a savings bank account which will only offer a meagre 4% of returns. Liquid Fund Returns are not guaranteed, but the most general cases of investments in these liquid funds have yielded positive returns when redeemed.
You should consider the funds which have a constant good showing in the market. These funds should have a good showing in the market over the past few years say 3-5 years. The fund you select for investment should essentially have a better performance in comparison to its peer funds and should also have outperformed the benchmark indices.
Cost
In order to manage your investment, the mutual funds charge a nominal fee known as the expense ratio. For liquid mutual funds, SEBI has given an upper limit of 2.25%. The liquid funds’ fund manager deploys a strategy of hold till mature strategy in order to manage the fund and in consideration of that, liquid funds have a relatively lower expense ratio in order to provide higher returns over a short time-frame.
Investment Horizon
In most cases, investment in the liquid funds is done in order to contribute surplus cash over a small time-frame say for eg. 3 months. In such a short Investment horizon, the full potential of the underlying securities is realized. In case you plan to invest for a longer time period ranging closer to 12 months or more than a year, you can consider an investment in ultra-short term funds which might yield significantly better returns.
Financial Goals
The financial goals/ objectives with you’re investing also play a pivotal role in the selection, as well as, investment in a liquid mutual fund. Your goals and the fund’s objectives should match up for the most part in order for you to invest in that fund. One of the goals that the liquid funds might help you with is the setting up of an emergency fund. Since these funds can be withdrawn within a time period of 1-2 days these can help in times financial strain and help provide monetary relief.
Fund History
The history of the concerned fund house is also an important criterion to factor in when you’re investing in a particular fund house. Fund houses with a strong history and consistent performance and investors trust during market slumps is a big factor to take in while investing your hard-earned money towards an investment instrument. In an ideal scenario, you should go for a fund house which has shown consistently excellent fund performance over the past 5-10 years.
Financial Ratios
- • Standard Deviation
- • Sharpe Ratio
- • Alpha
- • Beta
Just the plain simple returns of a fund are not enough to determine the performance of a fund. The various financial ratios of the fund have to be assessed in order to properly assess the performance of the fund from multiple angels. Some of the ratios and tools you can deploy in order to examine the overall performance of the fund are as follows:
Funds with high standard deviation and beta are riskier than those with lower values of the same. The Sharpe ratio basically tells the risk-adjusted returns of the fund, higher the Sharpe ratio, higher the returns for every additional risk unit taken.
Thus, liquid funds provide a means of stable, less risky and safe investment for short term financial objective achievement.