Market dynamics to be influenced by favourable cyclical factors in 2024, says Ashish Gupta of Axis Mutual Fund

livemint.com:

fixed deposits and physical assets like gold and real estate. Today, four crore unique investors are invested in mutual funds, in a country of 140 crore people, highlighting a large scope for further adoption. Increased awareness of mutual funds is also visible in monthly SIP flows which have doubled from pre-pandemic levels to more than ₹17,000 crore per month (as of Dec 9, 2023).

We always advise investors to stay invested across for the long term and not be worried about short-term fluctuations. A few months ago, many were worried about staying invested in mid and smallcaps given their strong run. I have consistently been asked about whether one should move out of these and get into largecaps.

Mid and small-cap indices outperformed in eight out of 12 months in 2023 compared to Nifty. The power of staying invested for long, not getting worried about short-term volatility, and spreading your eggs across the basket is the best way to create wealth. If we look at the last few years, new fund offers (NFOs) have helped spread awareness and garner new investors into the mutual fund fold.

Many of these NFOs have also helped investors get a taste of what mutual funds offer. As these new investors get comfortable with equity as an investment class, mutual funds as a vehicle, and the India growth story, we expect investors to explore other categories of funds and focus on building a portfolio of funds across asset classes based on their respective risk profiles. The mutual fund industry today offers more than 1450 schemes across asset classes and fund strategies.