Top 5 Best Gilt Funds To Invest In 2019

Want to invest during falling interest rates? Gilt Funds in India are an answer to this!

Gilt Mutual Funds provide good returns during times of falling interest rates depending upon its maturity (or duration). Investors Investing in these funds need to have enough time for tracking their investments since the NAVs of these funds move very sharply with movement in interest rates.

One needs to be careful in the entry and exit of their investments accurately. More importantly, considering important parameters to shortlist or invest in the best Gilt funds can be an optimal way to strengthen your portfolio. We take you to some of those parameters, following the best Gilt funds or Best Performing Mutual Funds to Invest in 2019.

Best Gilt Funds To Invest In FY 19 - 20

How To Choose Best Gilt Debt Mutual Funds?

Duration And Average Maturity

When investing in gilt Debt fund, it becomes necessary to determine the average maturity and the duration of the fund. This can be obtained in the fact sheet of the fund, the average maturity relates to the average time taken for securities to mature. The higher the average maturity (or duration), the higher the sensitivity to interest rate movement. While a downward movement is positive to the NAV of the fund (and hence returns), and upward (or increase) movement of interest rates will impact the NAV negatively resulting in a loss.

Duration refers to the weighted average maturity of the securities in a portfolio. It is a prime parameter used by analysts and others to determine the interest rate sensitivity of the mutual fund. If the funds are held for the time of duration of the portfolio and the fund manager does not do anything, then the investor will generate the yield on the portfolio, without being subjected to interest rate movements. Gilts funds are often used by two kinds of investors. Firstly, those who primarily want little or no credit risk, since the securities are backed by the government of India (or the government of the country they belong to), these investors invest for the yield and not for a view on interest rates. The other kind of investors who invest in Gilt Funds are the ones who take a view on interest rates, they would typically look at the maturity or duration of the portfolio and invest accordingly.

There are primarily three kinds of gilt funds that exist, short term, medium term and long term. Short term gilt funds have a low duration, typically less than a year. Long-term gilt funds can have a very high maturity period, at times going up to 10 to 15 years also. Long-term gilt funds are invested in for yield as well as playing the interest rate view by investors.

Interest Rate Risk

Gilt funds and interest rates are archrivals. There is an inverse relationship between Gilt debt funds and interest rates. An increase or decrease in the interest rate causes the NAV of the fund to fall or rise. This results in the fluctuation in the fund’s return. In fact, such extreme volatility in returns of the gilt funds makes them the riskiest in the debt mutual category. The impact is so profound that it may drive the yields to negative in the short run. Therefore, one should consider investing in gilt funds when Inflation is near its peak and the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) is not likely to raise the interest rate immediately. This would ensure there no downward movement in the NAV and hence returns. Any fall in interest rates would add to the returns of the fund.

A newbie investor should avoid investing in gilt mutual funds without a robust strategy.

Moreover, there are some other quantitative parameters that investors need to analyse before selecting the best Gilt Funds:

• Look for a Gilt Fund that gives the most stable and consistent returns year-after-year. A fund having lesser volatility would be consistent. Volatility can be determined using the Beta and Standard Deviation (SD). Beta indicates how much fund’s return is sensitive to index movements. A beta of 1 signifies that the mutual fund NAV moves in line with the relevant benchmark, a beta of a greater than 1 designates that the NAV moves more than the relevant benchmark of the fund, and a beta of less than 1 means NAV moves less than the benchmark. Investors should decide before getting into a fund whether they want higher beta or low beta.Coming to SD, it is a statistical measure representing the volatility or risk of a fund. The higher the SD, higher will be the fluctuations in the returns. Ideally, investors look for funds with a lower standard deviation. However, if the investor is clear on the reason of investing and has reviewed the fund performance as well as portfolio & related parameters (yield, duration, maturity etc), this is something one can overlook.

• The expense ratio is also one of the parameters to check your fund returns. It is advisable to go for a fund with a lower expense ratio in the same category. This is because the returns are derived after deducting expense ratio from the fund’s Total Return. Thus, the lower the expense ratio, the better returns it can deliver.

How to Invest in Gilt Funds Online?

1. Open Free Investment Account for Lifetime at Fincash.com.

2. Complete your Registration and KYC Process

3. Upload Documents (PAN, Aadhaar, etc.). And, You are Ready to Invest!

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Conclusion

If you want to invest in gilt mutual funds, then you need to invest opportunistically. An essential thing about investing in the best Gilt Funds is to strategies well. Having a strategy would help you to avoid perilous situations. Investing in these funds demands an ability to take a view on what the RBI may do in its credit risk policy and a call on interest rate movements._