Recently I had posted an analysis of Franklin Indian Blue Chip fund (FIBCF). In response, Swapnil suggested that I compare the fund with Sensex or Nifty including dividends. In the same post, I was able to include a comparison with the Nifty total returns index, as the data is conveniently available  (as Swapnil pointed out)….

You might be wondering why the title refers to mutual fund ‘categories’.  Would it not be more enticing and perhaps more useful had it read, ‘how to select mutual funds suitable for your financial goals’? Perhaps so.  However, I choose to focus on how to select mutual fund categories first, for two reasons I am…

Mutual fund investments are subject to market risk!  Haven’t we heard that one before?! If we wish to analyze the performance of a mutual fund, we should know how to evaluate returns and how to evaluate volatility. Volatility, not risk. Risk pertains to your financial goal.  Volatility pertains to the instrument. There are many ways to…

Regular readers of freefincal would recognize that the blog now has a decent set of resources for mutual fund evaluation and analysis. I would like to encourage the use of these tools and calculators by publishing analysis of a few mutual funds from time to time. The aim is to make it clear that mutual…

How different is a large cap equity mutual fund from an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks an equity index?  The portfolio of an index ETF is likely to be nearly identical to that of the index at any point of time. Typically the portfolio of all large cap mutual funds will have a good amount of…

Use this automated mutual fund rolling returns calculator to evaluate the consistency in performance of a mutual fund over any interval from April 3rd 2006 onward. You can compare results with benchmarks like Sensex, CNX Nifty, CNX Small-cap, and CNX Mid-Cap. This version is a major improvement over the previous Excel Rolling Returns Calculator.  The analysis…

Use this tool to analyze the returns from monthly SIP investments in mutual funds for investment periods ranging from one to seven years.  For comparison, SIP returns of an equity index (choose among Sensex, Nifty, CNX small cap and CNX mid cap) is also calculated. Features  Choose the mutual fund you need to analyze, click…

In the last couple of days AMFI has changed it web address! From www.AMFI.com,  it is now http://portal.amfiindia.com Therefore, I had to make this change in the mutual fund NAV history downloader. Also, while working on a mutual fund SIP returns analyzer, I noticed minor bugs in the mutual fund account statement generator and returns calculator….

This is an update to the Excel Mutual Fund NAV History Downloader posted a few days ago. I have now included the possibility of retrieving NAV history from the AMFI website in addition to Yahoo! Finance. Can retrieve NAV history of all mutual funds from AMFI up to April 3rd 2006 If you need NAV history from…

Unfortunately, Value Research Online changed their website format shortly after this tool was released. I often wonder if they did that because of this tool! So this tool does not work anymore. I only keep this post for sentimental reasons. If you wish you to analyse your mutual funds try these: Mutual Fund Rolling Returns…

Use this tool to download mutual fund NAV history from Yahoo! Finance. Features Get full historical NAV from inception – not possible with the painful to use AMFI site. Fast download! Select frequency: daily/weekly/monthly Sort ascending or descending For dividend mutual funds obtain dividend history alone Suitable for Indian Mutual Funds only. Uses of Mutual…

Here is a list of calculators and resources related to fixed deposit (FD), recurring deposit (RD) and debt mutual funds. 1. Fixed Deposit and Recurring Deposit Calculators FD-Maturity value Comprehensive Fixed Deposit Calculator – I: Total and Advance Tax Liability Comprehensive Fixed Deposit Calculator – II: The Income Clubbing Headache  Variable RD Calculator Comprehensive Recurring…

Use this excel tool to generate an account statement and calculate returns for your mutual fund SIP investments using NAV history. First, a few thoughts about calculating SIP returns. There are many ways to calculate returns from a SIP investment using Excel. Many prefer to use a function known as XIRR to estimate returns. Yes,…

Analyzing the performance of a mutual fund is not rocket science.  Anybody can do it, just as anybody can select a mutual fund following a few simple rules. I would like to prove my point with a do it yourself mutual fund analysis using HDFC Top 200 fund – one of the most popular mutual funds in…