Status Appraisal of Open-ended Mutual Fund Schemes in India

Mutual fund industry has experienced a drastic growth in the past decades. Increase in the number of schemes with increased mobilization of funds in the past few years notes the importance of Indian mutual funds industry. To fulfill the expectations of millions of retail investors, the mutual funds are required to function as successful institutional investors. Proper assessment of various fund performance and their comparison with other funds helps retail investors for making investment decisions. The main aim of this evaluative study is to analyse the performance of mutual fund schemes. Considering the interest of retail investors simple statistical techniques like averages and rate of returns are used. The results obtained from the study clearly depicts that, in most of the cases the mutual fund schemes have failed even to provide the return of domestic term deposits. But we have to accept usefulness of mutual funds as a better secondary market investment tool for retail investors.