Report on Summer Training

A STUDY ON INVESTORS PERCEPTION TOWARDS

MUTUAL FUNDS

A SUMMER INTERNSHIP REPORT

Submitted by
SADHNA

Registration No:
11611190
in partial fulfillment of Summer Internship for the award of the degree of

MASTERS IN COMMERCE (HONS.)

School of Business

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Phagwara, Punjab
July, 2017
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I take this opportunity to convey our sincere thanks and gratitude to all those who have directly
or indirectly helped and contributed towards the completion of this project.

I take here a great opportunity to express my sincere gratitude towards Karvy Stock Broking ltd.
For providing the opportunity and resources to work on this project and deep sense of gratitude
to MR. RAJESH KUMAR (Cluster Manager of Karvy Stock Broking Limited) and to MRS.
MEGHA MEHTA (University faculty mentor) for giving me an opportunity to work on this
project.

Sadhna

M.com(hons.)

Reg. no. 11611190

COMPANY PROFILE

The Karvy Group was formed in 1983 at Hyderabad, India. Karvy ranks among the top player in
almost all the fields it operates. Karvy computer share Limited in Indias largest registrar and
Transfer Agent with a client base of nearly 500 blue chip corporates, managing over 2 crore
accounts. Karvy Stock Brokers Limited, member of National Stock Exchange of India and the
Bombay Stock Exchange, ranks among the five stock brokers in India. With over 6,00,000 active
accounts, it ranks among the top 5 depositary participant in India, registered with NSDL and
CDSL. Karvy Comtrade , Member of NCDEX and MCX ranks among top 3 commodity brokers
in the country. Karvy Insurance brokers are registered as a broker with IRDA and ranks among
top 5 insurance agent in the country. Registered with AMFI as a corporate agent, Karvy is also
among the top Mutual Fund mobilizer with over Rs. 5000 crores under management. Karvy
Realty Services, which started in 2006, has quickly established itself as a broker who adds value,
in the realty sector. Karvy Global offers niche off shoring services to clients in the US.

Karvy has 575 offices over 375 locations across India and Overseas at Dubai and New York.
Over 9,000 highly qualified people staff.

Organization

Karvy was started by a group of five chartered accountants in 1979. The partners decided to
offer, other than the audit services, value added services like corporate advisory services to their
clients. The first firm in the group, Karvy Consultants Limited was incorporated on 23rd july,
1983. In a very short period, it becomes the largest Registrar and Transfer Agent in India. The
business was spun off to form a separate joint venture with Computershare of Australia, in 2005.
Karvys foray into stock broking began with marketing IPOs in 1993. Within a few years,
Karvy began topping the IPO procurement league tables and it has consistently maintained its
position among the top 5. Karvy was among the first few members of National Stock Exchange,
in 1994 and became a member of The Stock Exchange, Mumbai in 2001. Dematerialization of
shares gathered pace in mid-90s and Karvy was in the forefront educating investors on the
advantages of dematerializing their shares. Today Karvy is among the top 5 Depository
Participant in India.

Karvy has always believed in adding value to services it offers to clients. A top-notch research
team based in Mumbai and Hyderabad supports its employees to advise clients on their
investment needs. With the information overloaded today, Karvys team of analysts help
investors make the right calls, be it equities, mutual funds, Insurance. On a typical working day
Karvy:

1. Has more than 25,000 investors visiting our 575 offices.

2. Publishers/broadcasts at least 50 buy/sell calls
3. Attends to 10,000+ telephone calls
4. Mails 25,000 envelopes, containing Annual Reports, Dividend cheques /advises,
allotment/refund advises
5. Executes 150,000+ trades on NSE/BSE
6. Executes 50,000 debit/credit in the depository accounts
7. Advises 3,000+ clients on the investments in mutual funds

VISION OF KARVY

To achieve & sustain market leadership , Karvy shall aim for complete customer satisfaction, by
combining its human and technological resources ,to provided world class quality service. In the
process Karvy shall strive to meet and exceed customers satisfaction and set industry standards.

Mission statement:

Our mission is to be a leading and referred service provider to our customer, and we aim to achieve this
leadership position by building an innovative, enterprising, and technology driven organization which
will set the highest standards of services and business ethics

FINANCIAL SERVICES BY KARVY

1. Equity broking services.

2. Depository participant services.
3. Distribution of financial products.
4. Currency derivatives.
 5. Wealth management services.
6. Portfolio management services.
7. Investment banking.
8. Commodities broking.
9. Non- banking financial services.
10. Realty services
11. Registry services
12. Forex & Currencies
13. Insurance Repository

ACHIEVEMENTS AND AWARDS

Among the top 5 stock brokers in India (4% of NSE volumes)

Indias No 1 Register & securities transfer Agents.

Among the top 3 Depositary Participants.

Largest Network of Branches of Business associates.

ISO 9002 certified operations by DNV.

Among top 10 Investment bankers.

Largest Distributor of Financial products.

Adjudged as one of the top 50 IT uses in India by MIS Asia.

Full Fledged IT driven operation.

2010

"Largest E-Broking House in India" at BSE Equity Broking Awards 2010 by Dun & Bradstreet
held in ITC Grand Maratha, Mumbai. This award is based on the study carried out by the worlds
leading provider of business information, knowledge and insight, Dun & Bradstreet in
association with the oldest stock exchange in India, the Bombay Stock Exchange.
The BSE-D&B Equity Broking Awards recognizes the brokerage firms based on the number of
online accounts, volume of online trade, and service delivery of their online trading platform.
Karvy Stock Broking Limited has won this prestigious award for its state of the art, in-house
developed KarvyOnline, a comprehensive online investment platform that enables investors to
invest, anytime from anywhere.

2007

Bagged ace award by receiving the coveted Annual Award for 2006 for "Best CEO, Initiating
HR Practices, by, the Uttar Pradesh Chapter of National Institute of Personnel Management
(NIPM). The Award has been conferred to Mr. C Parthasarathy, CMD, Karvy Group, for his
contribution to HR practices in Lucknow, organized by UP chapter of NIPM.

2007

"Amity Corporate Excellence" award at the 9th International Business Summit and Research
Conference-INBUSH (International Business Horizon) which was held at a glittering function in
Noida. This award was conferred by Amity International Business School, Noida.

2006

ISTD "Vivekananda National Award" for Excellence in HRD & Training

2004

"Best Depository Participant in the country" award.

ABSTRACT

Mutual funds are considered as the best tool for the investors to invest. As Information and
awareness about the mutual funds is rising, more and more people are enjoying the benefits of
the mutual fund investments. The objective of this research is to analyze investors perception
towards mutual fund investments, their preference towards mutual fund schemes and their view
towards mutual funds. This research will introduce factors which motivate the investors to invest
in mutual funds, reason behind every mutual fund investment by the investors. This study is done
in the Jalandhar city by taking the sample size of 50 investors. Random sampling technique is
used to select the sample for the study. The data is collected by the distribution of self structured
questionnaire and analyzed through excel by inserting pivot tables and charts. The findings of the
study are, most of the investors consider high return and safety as important factor which
motivate them to invest in mutual funds and they prefer equity oriented mutual fund schemes for
investment and they think mutual fund investments are moderate risky investments. Most of the
investors get knowledge about different mutual funds from friends and relatives, Internet and
newspapers.

INTRODUCTION TO MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual funds emerged for the first time in Netherlands in the 18th century and then got
introduced in Switzerland, Scotland and then United states in 19th century. The main motive
behind the mutual funds is to provide the diversified investment solution. The concept of mutual
funds in India was introduced in 1960. Earlier the investors used to invest in stock market and
many times they suffered a loss due to wrong speculation, But with coming up of the mutual
funds the funds are managed by the fund managers, which resulted the lower down the losses by
a great extent.

Mutual fund is a trust that pools the savings of the investors who share the common financial
goal. The money collected is then invested in various capital market instruments such as shares,
debentures and other securities. The income derived from such securities and the capital
appreciation is then shared by such investors. The income is distributed on the basis of the units
owned by the investors. The investments in mutual funds are less risky and it gives higher
returns to the investors. The investments in mutual funds can be a lot easier than the individual
investors buying and selling of stock. In the early years of growth of mutual funds industry,
there were very less opportunities for the investors to make investment in mutual funds but with
the passage of time there are a lot of opportunities which are available for the investors to make
investment in mutual funds.

Mutual funds can be invested in many different kinds of securities. The most common are cash,
stock, and bonds, but there are hundreds of sub-categories. Stock funds invest primarily in the
shares of a particular industry, such as technology or utilities. These are known as sector funds.
Bond funds can vary according to risk (e.g., high-yield or junk bonds, investment-grade
corporate bonds), type of issuers (e.g., government agencies, corporations, or municipalities), or
maturity of the bonds (short- or long-term). Both stock and bond funds can invest in primarily
U.S. securities (domestic funds), both U.S. and foreign securities (global funds), or primarily
foreign securities (international funds).Most mutual funds' investment portfolios are continually
adjusted under the supervision of a professional manager, who forecasts the future performance
of investments appropriate for the fund and chooses those which he or she believes will most
closely match the fund's stated investment objective. A mutual fund is administered through a
parent management company, which may hire or fire fund managers. Mutual funds are liable to a
special set of regulatory, accounting, and tax rules. Unlike most other types of business entities,
they are not taxed on their income as long as they distribute substantially all of it to their
shareholders. Also, the type of income they earn is often unchanged as it passes through to the
shareholders. Mutual fund distributions of tax-free municipal bond income are also tax-free to
the shareholder. Taxable distributions can be either ordinary income or capital gains, depending
on how the fund earned those distributions.

BENEFITS OF INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

1. Professional Management
When you invest money in mutual funds, the money is managed by the professionals.
Investors do not have time to manage their portfolios. They can gain the financial
services of the professional managers by investing in mutual funds.
2. Diversification

Mutual funds provide the benefit of diversification across different sectors and
companies. Mutual funds widen investments across various industries and asset classes.
Thus, by investing in a mutual fund, you can gain from the benefits of diversification and
asset allocation, without investing a large amount of money that would be required to
build an individual portfolio.
3. Liquidity
Mutual funds are usually very liquid investments. Unless they have a pre-specified lock-
in period, your money is available to you anytime you want subject to exit load, if any.
Normally funds take a couple of days for returning your money to you. Since they are
 well integrated with the banking system, most funds can transfer the money directly to
your bank account.
4. Flexibility
Investors can benefit from the convenience and flexibility offered by mutual funds to
invest in a wide range of schemes. The option of systematic (at regular intervals)
investment and withdrawal is also offered to investors in most open-ended schemes.
Depending on ones inclinations and convenience one can invest or withdraw funds.
5. Low Transaction cost
Due to economies of scale, mutual funds pay lower transaction costs. The benefits are
passed on to mutual fund investors, which may not be enjoyed by an individual who
enters the market directly.
6. Transparency
Funds provide investors with updated information pertaining to the markets and schemes
through factsheets, offer documents, annual reports etc.
7. Well Regulated
Mutual funds in India are regulated and monitored by the Securities and Exchange Board
of India (SEBI), which endeavors to protect the interests of investors. All funds are
registered with SEBI and complete transparency is enforced. Mutual funds are required to
provide investors with standard information about their investments, in addition to other
disclosures like specific investments made by the scheme and the quantity of investment
in each asset class.
MUTUAL FUNDS OPERATION CHART

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

1. To study the various factors that affects the investors perception towards the investment
in mutual funds.
2. To study the investors awareness and preference in mutual fund schemes.
3. To know investors view towards mutual funds.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Arathy , Nair , Anju Sai & Pravitha (2015), conducted this study to identify the factors
influencing the investors investment decisions in mutual funds and to find the attitude and
perceptions of the retail investors towards mutual funds. They have taken 200 respondents as a
sample and used the snowball sampling and random sampling for the collection of data. The
study reveals that the major factors which influences the investors to invest in mutual funds are
tax benefits, high return ,capital appreciation etc. There are other factors like liquidity,
diversification and brand image but the impact of the former factors is more than these factors.
Singh & Singh (2016), conducted this research to know about the perceptions of the investors
towards mutual funds in phagwara region and to evaluate the perceptions towards mutual funds
as compared to the other investment avenues. They used the descriptive and exploratory research
methods and made a sample size of 200 by using the non probable convenience sampling
technique. It was found that most of the investors are not aware about the terms and policies of
the mutual funds and they take the help of financial advisors to make investment and mostly they
choose ICICI for making investments in mutual funds.

Dr. Singh (2012), conducted this research to know the impact of the various demographic factors
on investors perception towards mutual funds and to study the factors responsible for the
selection of mutual funds. The researcher has used the chi-square test to analyze the different
factors responsible for the selection of mutual funds. The primary data has been collected from
250 investors in Ranchi region through questionnaire and secondary data sources are also used
for the study. From the study it has been revealed that most of the respondents are not aware
about the various functions of mutual funds. The major demographic factors which influences
the attitude of the investors are Age, Gender and level of education.

Prabhu & Vechalekar(2013), conducted this study to identify the various factors which affect the
investors attitude while making investment in mutual funds and to find out the awareness level of
the investors regarding monthly income plan fund. The primary data has been collected from the
sample of 150 individual investors in mutual funds. The study reveals that most of the investors
are aware about the various schemes of the mutual funds and diversification of portfolio and tax
benefit are the main factors of mutual funds that allures the investors. Most of the investors are
aware about the MIP funds and the preferred reason for investing in these funds is consistent
returns given by these funds.

Kalaisalvi(2016), conducted this research to analyze the performance of mutual funds and
perception of the investors in mutual funds investment. The sample of 250 mutual funds
investors has been taken for collecting primary data by using convenience sampling. From the
study it has been revealed that most of the investors prefer to take more risk for getting more and
more returns. They are aware about the market risks. There is one limitation in the study that it
has not considered the rural investors for analyzing the performance of mutual funds.

Senthil & Zefar(2005), conducted the study to find out the perception of the mutual funds
investors in current scenario and realities and the level of satisfaction to the investors from the
performance of the mutual funds. The study reveals that most of the investors prefer more
investments in mutual funds than shares because of the high degree of risk associated with the
shares.

Sharma & Agarwal(2015), conducted this study to analyze the factors which positively and
adversely affect the buying decision of the investors in case of mutual funds. The random sample
of 50 respondents has been taken and data is collected with the help of self structured
questionnaire and chi-square test is used to arrive at the findings and conclusion. The study
reveals that the major factors which influence the buying behavior of the investors are sources on
which the investors rely while making investment in mutual funds.

Kumar & Bansal(2014), conducted this study to analyze the different factors that highlights the
investors perception towards the mutual funds. One of the main objectives of the study is to find
out the investors knowledge about different investment avenues. The sample size of 125
respondents has been used to collect the primary data and various journal, newspapers, other
research papers and magazines are used to collect the secondary data. Chi-square, tally, mean
and median is used to draw findings of the study. In the findings it is revealed that most of the
respondents are not aware about the mutual fund investments and they usually use Banks and
post office schemes to make their investments. Most of the respondents who invest in mutual
funds does not hold their investments more than 3 years and quit from the investments if it does
not give better returns.

Prabhavathi & Kishore(2013), Conducted this research to understand the attitude, awareness and
preferences of the mutual funds investors and the factors affecting the investment decisions of
the mutual fund investors. 90 Mutual fund investors constitute the sample size. These investors
belongs to three different places (Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai). Percentage analysis and
Garrett ranking are the tools which are used to analyze the mutual fund investors. On the basis of
this study, It has been observed that most of the investors ought to be cautious in selecting the
schemes and sectors for making investment in mutual funds.

Mane(2016), conducted this study to know about the preference of the investors towards mutual
funds, schemes they are opting for the investment, reasons behind the selection of the particular
schemes for investment. The sample size of 30 investors has been taken for the study and they all
belong to Aurangabad city. Chi-square test of association is used for the analysis of data.
Primary data has been collected by distribution of self-structured questionnaire. It is revealed
from the study that most of the investors hesitate to invest in new age investments like mutual
funds and they prefer to avert their risk by making investment in less riskier schemes like
recurring deposits etc. The main limitation of the study is that it only consider the sample size of
thirty investors, the findings may differ in case of large sample size.

Goel & Kumar(2014), conducted this study to know about the purpose of the investors behind
making investment in mutual funds and investors perception about the future prospect of the
mutual funds. The primary data has been collected by using a sample size of 200 investors. It has
been revealed from the study that growth, liquidity, regular income, tax saving and speculation
are the main purposes for the investors to invest in mutual funds.

Jain & Rawal(2012), conducted this study to know about the preference pattern of the investors
towards mutual funds schemes and the factors influencing the investment decision of the
investors. The study is based on both primary as well as secondary data. The primary data has
been collected through interviews and pre-tested questionnaires(from 123 respondents). The
secondary data is taken from the books, journals and news etc. It has been revealed from the
study that the young investors takes capital appreciation as their investment objective and the
investors above 50 are moving towards pension schemes and life insurance schemes.
Sharma(2012), conducted this research to study the factors which affect the selection of the
investors while making investment in mutual funds. The study is based on primary data which is
collected from a structured survey through questionnaire. The whole data is analyzed through
mean, standard deviation and correlation. The study revealed the three factors named as
fund/scheme related attributes, monetary benefits and sponsers related attributes, which affect
the selection of the investors when they make investment in mutual funds.

Saini, Anjum & Saini(2011), conducted this study to analyze the investors awareness and
perception regarding investment in mutual funds. The study is based on the primary as well as
secondary data. The primary data has been collected from investors through questionnaire and
secondary data is collected from the financial institutions sponsored mutual funds. Chi-square
test has been applied to analyze the data. From the study it has been revealed that the main factor
which affect the investors is tax saving benefits if they invest in mutual funds.

Padmaja(2013), conducted this study to analyze the consumer behavior towards mutual funds.
Data is collected through primary as well as secondary sources. Primary data has been collected
through structured questionnaire from 100 respondents and convenience sampling method is
used to take sample of the investors. It has been observed from the study that the business class
investors and professionals like to invest in equity and balanced funds and investors of service
class like to invest in ICICI tax saving plan, while retired class are less likely to invest.

Subramanya(2015), conducted this research to know about the investors perception towards
mutual funds with special consideration of socio-Economic variables. The research is based on
both primary and secondary data. Primary data has been collected from the sample size of 100
investors through questionnaire and the secondary data from reports, journals, books etc. The
study revealed that the factors like age, income, gender, education and savings of the investor;s
perception towards mutual funds are not the encouraging factors but age of the investors and
saving habit of the investors are the main factor which influence the investment in mutual funds.

Ranganathan(2004), conducted this study to analyze the fund selection behavior of individual
investors towards mutual funds. In this study the data is collected through pre-tested
questionnaire administered on combination of simple random and judgement sample of 100
educated individual investors. The study reveals that most of the investors have a saving
objective of providing funds for retirement through pension and provident fund schemes in the
city of Mumbai.
Shah & Mehta(2012), conducted this research to know about the preference of investors for
Indian mutual funds and its performance evaluation. Primary and secondary research has been
done in this study. Primary research is done to know about the preference and secondary research
is done for the performance evaluation. The sample size of 100 investors is taken with the help of
convenience sampling technique. The primary data is collected through questionnaire. The study
reveals that the major factor which influence the investors are the sources on which the investors
rely while making investment, these are the most preferable mode of investment which the
investors use while making investment in mutual funds.

Agrawal & Jain(2013), conducted this study to know about the investors preference towards
mutual funds in comparison to another investment avenues. The study is based on the primary
research. The primary data is collected through structured questionnaire by taking a sample size
of 300 investors with the help of snowball sampling technique. From the study it is concluded
that maximum investors are aware about the Banks and LIC investment avenues and more than
80% of the investors are aware about mutual funds, real estate and NSC investment avenues.

Kandavel(2011), conducted this study to analyze the various factors which influence the retail
investors to prefer investment in mutual funds in Puducherry. 600 retail investors are selected for
the study and data is collected through the questionnaire. Chi-square test has been applied to
analyze the data. The study reveals that the small investors purchase behavior does not have
coherence due to the influence of different purchase factors.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
This chapter deals with how the research will be designed and the methodology used to determine the
perception of the investors towards mutual funds. The study will be descriptive and explanatory in nature.
Both Secondary as well as Primary data is collected and used for the study. Primary data is
collected through the self structured questionnaires, which is examined for the analysis. Secondary data
source for the study include internet websites etc.
Sampling Technique
Simple random sampling technique is used for the purpose of collecting data from the
respondents. A simple random sample is a subset of a statistical population in which each member of the
subset has an equal probability of being chosen. A simple random sample of 50 investors is selected
targeting one questionnaire each. Simple random sampling helps ensure that the sample represents the
entire population, and is not biased or prejudiced toward any particular groups within the population.
Sample Size
Sample size of the respondents from whom the data is collected is of 50 respondents. The target
investors for this study are those who have invested their money in mutual funds. The 50
respondents are the investors in financial market but out of these 50 investors only 43 are those
who are an investor in mutual funds. The rest 7 investors know about the mutual funds but are
not an investor in mutual funds. So, only 43 investors are our target respondents because they
have invested their money in mutual funds and the data collected from them will fulfill the
objectives of the study.
Data collection tool
The primary data has been collected from the distribution of self structured questionnaire and the
secondary data is collected from internet websites by downloading the related research papers for
writing the literature reviews.
Data analysis tool
The data collected through the questionnaire is analyzed in excel by inserting pivot tables on the
basis of data collected. Pie charts and Bar charts are used to analyze the data in excel.

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

The data has been collected from 50 investors of Jalandhar city to analyze their perception
towards mutual funds. According to the data that is collected with the help of self structured
questionnaire, most of the investors are male and most of them fall in the age group of below 30.
The detail analysis of the investors perceptions towards mutual funds is as follows with the help
of tables and charts.
Analysis of the Basic Details of the Investor:

From the chart that has been shown above it can be seen that most of the investors are male, they
are about 82% and rest 18% are female investors.

From the pie chart above it can be seen that total investors consists of businessmen,
Professionals, salaried and retired persons. The highest percentage is of businessmen which is
about 38%, professionals are 32%, salaried are 26% and rest are retired.
It is clear from the chart that most of the investors from whom the data has been collected are
below the age of 30 (about 46%). 22% are in the age category of 31-40%, 20% are in 41-50%
and 12% are above 50.

This chart explains the annual income of different investors. 36% is the high percentage of
investors who are having above 5,00,000 annual income, 34% have their annual income between
3,00,001-5,00,000 , 26% have between below 1,00,000 and rest between 1,00,001-3,00,000. The
reason behind the highest percentage of investors having annual income above 5,00,000 is that
most of the investors are businessmen from whom the data has been collected.
This chart explains the marital status of the investors. It shows that about 54% investors are
married and rest 46% are unmarried.

This chart explains that most of the investors in our sample from whom the data has been
collected and who are an investor in financial market are graduate, which constitute about 66%
of the total investors.
This chart reveals that the respondents from whom the data has been collected invest their
savings in the above given avenues. From the chart it can be seen that most of the investors
(40%) invest their savings in mutual funds. 38% investors invest their savings in shares ans
debentures and rest are the investor in fixed deposits and banks.

Data Analysis according to the objectives of research

Table 1: Do you know about mutual funds?

COUNTA of Do you know about

mutual funds? Column Labels
Row What is your current Grand
Labels status? Yes No Total
Male Business 17 17
Professional 9 1 10
Salaried 12 12
Retired 2 2
Male Total 40 1 41
Female Business 2 2
Professional 6 6
Salaried 1 1
Female Total 9 9
Grand Total 49 1 50

From the table it can be seen that out of the total 50 investors, 49 are aware about mutual funds
and most of them are male investors and it can also be seen that most of them belong to the
Business class and Salaried persons in males category and in females most of the females are
professional who know about the mutual funds.

This chart shows that in males, most of the investors who know about the mutual funds are the
businessmen and only one respondent does not know about the mutual funds(which is shown in
blue color. The total number of investors who know about the mutual funds is shown with the
help of red color.

Table 2: Are you an investor in mutual funds?

COUNTA of Are you an Column

investor in mutual funds? Labels
Your marital
Row Labels status Yes No Grand Total
Business Unmarried 5 1 6
Married 13 13
Business
Total 18 1 19
Professional Unmarried 9 5 14
Married 2 2
Professional Total 11 5 16
Salaried Unmarried 3 3
Married 9 1 10
Salaried
Total 12 1 13
Retired Married 2 2
Retired
Total 2 2
 Grand Total 43 7 50

From the above table it can be revealed that out of the total 50 investors, only 43 are the
respondents who invest in mutual funds. It can also be seen that the investors who invest in
mutual funds belongs to the business class and are married people. The total of the persons who
belong to the business class is 18( in which 5 are unmarried and 13 are married) and are investor
in mutual funds. Most of the investors are married persons.

From the chart given above it can be seen that most of the investors in mutual funds belongs to
the business class (which is shown in total of business class in red color). If we see the grand
total of the persons who are an investor in mutual funds, it is shown in red color and blue color
shows the number of investors who do not invest in mutual funds.

Table 3: What is your investment pattern?

COUNTA of What is your investment

pattern? Column Labels
Once Once in
Row You have invested in which type of in a six Grand
Labels mutual fund schemes year Monthly(SIP) months Total
Below
30 Equity funds 2 12 2 16
(blank)
Hybrid funds 1 1
Below
30
Total 2 13 2 17
 31-40 Equity funds 7 2 9
(blank)
Hybrid funds 1 1
31-40
Total 1 7 2 10
41-50 Equity funds 9 1 10
41-50
Total 9 1 10
Above
50 Equity funds 1 3 4
Debt funds 1 1 2
Above
50
Total 2 3 1 6
Grand
Total 5 32 6 43

From the table no.3 it has been observed that most of the mutual fund investors invest in the
Equity oriented funds( these investors fall in the age group of below 30) and if we talk about the
investment pattern of the investors then it can be observed that, out of total 43 investors 32 are
the investors who invest in SIP funds in which they have to invest a particular amount every
month. From this table it can be revealed that most of the mutual funds investors invest in equity
oriented funds and in SIP.
It is clear from the chart that most of the investors who are below the age of 30 are an investor in
SIP Equity oriented funds, which is shown in red color. There are very less investors who invest
in mutual funds once in a year and once in six months (which is shown in yellow and green color
respectively).

Table 4: How long would you like to hold your investments in mutual funds?

COUNTA of How long

would you like to hold
your investments in
mutual funds? Column Labels
more than 10 1-3 4-6 7-10 Grand
Row Labels Gender years (blank) years years years Total
Unmarried Male 3 3 4 3 13
Female 2 1 1 4
Unmarried
Total 3 5 5 4 17
Married Male 1 1 11 10 23
Female 2 1 3
Married Total 1 1 13 11 26
Grand Total 4 6 18 15 43

From table no. 4 it has been shown that number of investors who want to hold their investments
in mutual funds for 4-6 years are 18(which is the largest number) and these 18 investors belongs
to the married category of people. It is also clear that there are very less investors (4) who want
to hold their investment for long period (i.e. above 10 years).
It is clear from the chart that the number of investors who wants to hold their investments for 4-6
years are more (which is shown with the help of yellow color) and the percentage of investors
who wants to invest for long period are very less (which is shown with the help of purple color).
The respondent investors who invest for different time periods can be seen with the help of grand
totals of the investors given in the chart.

Table 5: How do you rate the risk associated with mutual fund investment?

COUNTA of
How do you
rate the risk
associated
with mutual Column
funds? Labels
Row Labels Moderate (blank) Low High Grand Total
Below 30 12 4 1 17
31-40 4 6 10
41-50 2 8 10
Above 50 4 2 6
Grand Total 22 20 1 43
From the table no.5 it can be observed that, out of total 43 mutual fund investors 22 are the
investors who believe that the risk associated with mutual funds is moderate and 20 are those
who says that risk associated with the mutual funds is low. All the investors who say that the risk
is moderate are those who belong to the age group of below 30. We can also see there is only one
investor from the total number of investors who believe that the risk associated with mutual fund
is high.

As it is already explained that the percentage of the mutual fund investors who think that the risk
associated with the mutual fund investment is moderate is more ( it is shown in the chart in the
grand total in the green color) and the red color shows the less number of investors who think the
risk in mutual fund investment is high.

Table 6: What is the percentage of return that you expect from mutual fund investments?

COUNTA of What is the percentage of

return that you expect from mutual fund
investment? Column Labels
What is your current 11- above Grand
Row Labels status? 16-20% (blank) 15% 20 5-10% Total
Below 30 Business 2 1 2 5
Professional 4 4 1 9
Salaried 1 1 1 3
Below 30 7 6 3 1 17
 Total

31-40 Business 2 3 1 6
Salaried 1 3 4
31-40 Total 3 6 1 10
41-50 Business 1 3 4
Professional 1 1
Salaried 1 3 4
Retired 1 1
41-50 Total 3 7 10
Above 50 Business 1 2 3
Professional 1 1
Salaried 1 1
Retired 1 1
Above 50
Total 2 4 6
Grand Total 15 6 20 2 43

It is clear from the above table that most of the investors (20) expect more than 20% return from
the mutual fund investments. From these 20 mutual fund investors almost 7 are those who are in
the age group of 41-50 years and belong to the business class, salaried persons, professionals and
retired persons. On the other hand we can see that there are only two investors who expect only
5-10% return from their mutual fund investments. The number of investors who expect 16-20%
return from their mutual fund investments are 15, which is also a good number.

The above table can be explained with the help of following graphical representation:
As it is explained earlier in the above table that most of the investors expect above 20% of return
from their mutual fund investments, which is given in the chart in grand total in last column in
purple color and the investors who expect 5-10%, 11-15% and 16-20% on their investments are
shown with the help of green, red and yellow color respectively in the above chart.

Table 7: What are the factors which you consider while selecting a mutual fund?

COUNTA of
Which among the
following do you
consider while
selecting a mutual
fund? Column Labels
Indentifying your own Finding about its past Grand
Row Labels objectives (blank) performance Total
Below 30 9 8 17
31-40 9 1 10
41-50 10 10
Above 50 5 1 6
Grand Total 33 10 43

It is clear from the above table that the major factors which affect the mutual fund selection
decision of the investors are Identification of their own objectives and finding about the past
performance of the mutual fund investment. But most of the investors (33) identify their own
objectives while selecting a particular mutual fund and there are only 10 investors who see the
past performance of the mutual fund for selecting that particular mutual fund for their
investment. Almost 10 investors belong to the age category of 41-50 years who identify their
own objectives for their investment and more number of investor who find the past performance
of the mutual fund are in the age group of below 30 years.

It can also be explained with the help of the following graph:

It is very clear from the above graph that most of the investors identify their own objectives for
selecting a mutual fund for their investment, which is shown with the help of yellow color in the
graph.
Table 8: What are the primary source of your knowledge about mutual funds as an
investment option?

COUNTA of
Which are
the primary
sources of
your
knowledge
about mutual
funds as an
investment
option? Column Labels
Newspaper/Jounal/Magazi (blank Interne Friends and Televisio Grand
Row Labels nes ) t Relatives n Total
Business 1 12 4 1 18
Professional 3 5 2 1 11
Salaried 1 10 1 12
Retired 1 1 2
Grand Total 5 28 8 2 43

From the above table it can be explained that almost 28 investors are the investors who come to
know about the mutual funds with the help of internet and most of the investors (12) belong to
the business class. It is also clear from the table that there are very less investors (only 2) who
consider the television as their primary source of knowledge about mutual funds as an
investment option.
It is clear from the above graph that most of the investors use internet as their primary source of
knowledge about mutual funds as an investment option in which most of the investors are
businessmen (shown in blue color) and salaried persons (shown in green color) and rest are
professionals and retired (shown in red and yellow respectively). It is also shown in the graph
that the investors who use television as their source of knowledge are very less in number.

Table 9: What are the factors which prevent you to invest in mutual funds?

COUNTA of
Which factors
prevent you to
invest in mutual
funds? Column Labels
Difficulty Inefficien
What is in Lack of Bitter t Gra
Row your selection confidence in Lack of past investme nd
Labe current of (blan service being knowled experie Nothi nt Tota
ls status? schemes k) provided ge nce ng advisors l
Belo
w 30 Business 4 1 5
Professio
nal 3 2 1 2 1 9
Salaried 1 1 1 3
Belo
w 30
Total 8 2 2 3 1 1 17
31-
40 Business 3 2 1 6
Salaried 4 4
31-
40
Total 7 2 1 10
41-
50 Business 1 1 2 4
Professio
nal 1 1
Salaried 2 2 4
Retired 1 1
41-
50
Total 4 4 2 10
Abov
e 50 Business 1 1 1 3
Professio
nal 1 1
Salaried 1 1
Retired 1 1
Abov
e 50 1 3 2 6
 Total
Gran
d
Total 20 11 4 4 1 3 43

From the above table it can be concluded that most of the investors (20) think that the most
important factor which prevent them to invest in mutual funds is difficulty in selection of
schemes and 11 investors are those who think that lack of the service being provided is the factor
which prevent them to invest in mutual funds. These investors are in the age group of below 30.

This chart explains the number of factors which prevent the investors to invest in mutual funds.
The different colors in the chart explain the factors considered by different investors. From the
last column we can see that most of the investors consider difficulty in selection of schemes is
the important factor which prevents them to invest (shown in yellow color).
Following is the chart which explains that how many mutual fund investors are satisfied
with their investment in mutual fund:

From the above pie chart it can be concluded that from the total 43 mutual fund investors, there
are about 94% mutual fund investor who are satisfied with the with their investment in mutual
funds and only 6% investors are those who are not satisfied with the investment.

FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

The findings from the data which is analyzed is that about 82% of the respondents in this study
are male and rest 18% are females. Most of the respondents are Businessmen and are graduate
and they invest their savings in mutual funds because they consider that the investments in
mutual funds involves less and moderate risk and they think that the return from the mutual
funds is also more as compared to other investment avenues. According to the objectives of the
study it is found that High return and safety are the most important factors which motivate the
investors to invest in mutual funds. It is also found that most of the mutual fund investors give
preference to equity oriented mutual fund schemes to invest in mutual funds and the primary
sources from which they come to know about the mutual funds are internet, Newspapers and
Friends and relatives. Mutual fund investors prefer to identify their own objectives before
investment in mutual funds. The investors consider the mutual funds as the best option to make
investment because it gives high return and the risk associated with the mutual funds is also
moderate. It is also found that most of the investors want to hold their investments for 4-6 years
and they expect above 20% return on their mutual fund investments.
SUGGESTIONS
There are some suggestions for the better investments for the investors that they should hold
their investments for long period of time keeping in mind the return and risk involved in the
investments. It is also suggested that the investors should also invest the part of their savings in
liquid assets so that they can meet any contingency in future. For best investments the investors
should consult the consultants so that they can guide them about the more profitable investment
avenues.
CONCLUSION
The objective of this study was to know about the investors perception towards mutual funds.
From this study it is concluded that Most of the investors from our respondents are aware about
the mutual funds and they invest in mutual funds because they think that mutual fund
investments are less risky than other investments options.
QUESTIONNAIRE TO STUDY THE INVESTORS PERCEPTION
TOWARDS MUTUAL FUNDS

Respected Madam/Sir,

I am a student of M.com(hons.) in Lovely Professional university. Presently, I am working on

my Internship Research project on Mutual funds. I will be more obliged if you could respond to
the below mentioned questionnaire. Your response can put more light on my research work and I
can come out with realistic findings.

Part A

Personal data:

Name: ____________________

2. Gender: (a) Male (b) Female

3. Age: (a) below 30 (b) 31-40 (c) 41-50 (d) above 50

4. Qualification: (a) School Final (b) Graduate (c) Post Graduate (d) Professional degree

5. Occupation: (a) Professional (b) Business (c) Salaried (d) Retired

6. Marital Status: (a) Married (b) Unmarried (c) Widow (d) Widower (e) Divorced

7. Annual Income:

(a) below 1,00,000

(b) 1,00,001- 3,00,000

(c) 3,00,001- 5,00,000

(d) above 5,00,000

 Part B

Research based questions:

8. Where do you invest your savings?

(a) Savings Bank

(b) Fixed Deposits

(c) Insurance

(d) Gold/Silver

(e) Mutual funds

(f) Shares and Debentures

9. What are the factors to which you give priority when you invest?

(a) Safety (b) High Return (c) Liquidity (d) Less risk

10. You Invest in financial securities which give:

(a) High risk/High return (b) Low risk/Low return (c) Low risk/High return

11. Do you know about Mutual funds?

(a) Yes (b) No

12. Are you an investor in mutual funds?

(a) Yes (b) No

13. If yes, then mention the company in which you have invested in mutual funds

Company ________________________ Scheme _______________________

14. How is your Investment Pattern?

(a) Monthly (SIP) (b) Once in 6 months (c) Once in a year (d) very rare
15. You have invested in which type of mutual fund scheme

(a) Equity Funds (b) Debt funds (c) Hybrid funds

16. How long would you like to hold your mutual fund investments?

(a) 1-3 years (b) 4-6 years (c) 7-10 years (d) more than 10 years

17. How do you rate the risk associated with Mutual funds?

(a) Low (b) Moderate (c) High

18. What is the percentage of return that you expect from the mutual fund investment?

(a) 5-10% (b) 10-15% (c) 15-20% (d) above 20

19. Which Among the following do you consider while selecting a mutual fund:

(a) Enquiring about the fund manager

(b) Finding about its past performance

(c) Indentifying your own objectives

(d) Others __________________

20. Which are the primary sources of your knowledge about mutual funds as an investment
option?

(a) Television (b) Newspapers/journals (c) Internet (d) Friends/Relatives (e) Sales representatives

21. Which Factors prevent you to invest in mutual funds?

(a) Bitter past experience

(b) Lack of Knowledge

(c) Lack of confidence in service being provided

(d) Difficulty in selection of schemes

(e) Inefficient investment advisors

(f) Others ___________________

22. Are you satisfied with your investment?

(a) Yes (b) No

Thanks for your cooperation

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