Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA) which manages a global proprietary database of private equity activity across emerging markets announced that India and China has got as much as 68% of the total private equity funds.

EMPEA quoted, "China and India together captured 68 per cent of the total invested, with USD 5.8 billion going into China and USD 3.8 billion into India”.

Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) has got its new chairman. This position at AMFI was vacant since departure of U K Sinha from the association to become the chief at market regulatory body Security and Exchange Commission of India (SEBI).

The new chairman at the AMFI is Milind Barve. Milind Barve is serving as Managing Director of HDFC Asset Management Company. In the same announcement, AMFI declared its vice-chairman also.

The average Assets Under Management (AUM) of the mutual fund industry has seen a nearly 4% rise in the month of September because of the rally in the market. But the experts say the redemptions continue to plague the industry at the same time.

The monthly AUM data for the month of September posted on the website of the Association of Mutual Funds of India showed an increase because of a rise in the Net Asset Values and not necessarily because of the increase in the investor numbers.

The mutual fund sector for the first time since June2009 has been able to register growth in average assets under management (AAUM) by overcoming the quarter back effects, first time in last five quarters. The growth was achieved largely due to the fixed income category and beneficial liquidity condition in the earlier part of the month.

The statistics provided by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) showed that the fund sector witnessed the growth by 3.7 percent to 7.12-lacs- crore in September as that to 6.87-lacs- crore in the previous month.

It has been found out from a recently done survey that close to 60% of the mutual funds have over-performed their benchmark index in the past 32 months.

In fact, as the sensex has recently kissed the 20,000 mark, a survey by FE has suggested that the mutual funds have beaten the benchmark index with a wide margin in a scenario where the markets are either flat or are going through a bull-run.

Moreover, the survey further pointed out the fact that close to 108, equity diversified funds since Jan2008 have outperformed their benchmark index while 97 of them have been under-performing in their category.

A new fund has been started by Reliance Mutual Fund and the name of the fund is Reliance Fixed Horizon Fund - XV - Series 9. It is going to be a closed ended income scheme which will have a period of 370 days from the date of allotment of the scheme.

The unit price of the NFO is going to be Rs 10 per unit and the scheme will be open from subscription from September 13 and close on September 14, 2010.

Viom Networks has seen 11 per cent of its stake being bought over by Macquarie SBI Infrastructure Fund (MSIF). The total amount that is being for this is Rs 1,400 crore.

Chairman of one of the main promoting companies of Viom gave this information on Wednesday. Talking to media, Sunil Kanoria, SREI Infrastructure vice-chairman said that 11 per cent sale and the subsequent money generated by it will be used for repaying loan that has been created by Viom.

In the latest available data about the mutual fund industry, it was seen that the assets under management of (AUM) the funds has steeply fallen for second consecutive month. The overall fall for the quarter has been 1.5 per cent.

Even the biggest mutual fund, Anil Ambani's Reliance MF was unable to hold on to its gains and fell down.

In all, the AUM of the whole sector went down by Rs 10,296.15 crore, or 1.52 per cent. The combined average AUM of the sector, which consisted 39 funds stood at Rs 6,65,567 crore in July.

After facing a continuous depletion in the asset base, the mutual fund industry is also facing a tough question. The number of consumer complaints faced by, the industry have increased dramatically.

Most of the complaints are with respect to the redemption proceeds and non-receipt of dividends. These are the areas which are turning out to be the biggest worry not only for the investors but also for the people.

HDFC Asset Management has been barred from trading in the stock market by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). This step was taken by the regulator because it found the equities dealer involved by leaking key information in advance.

The orders are that it should not be allowed to do any market transaction till further notice is served to them.

SEBI showed instances where investors Rajiv Ramniklal Sanghvi, Chandrakant P Mehta and Dipti Paras Mehta, placed their orders in the same stocks just before they were traded by Nilesh Kapadia on behalf of HDFC AMC.

Capital market regulators, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has made a proposal whereby it wants to review the regulations governing the mutual fund (MF) industry. And a part if this is the one that covers the portfolio management done by the asset management companies (AMCs).

SEBI calls for the clear demarcation to be drawn between the two different businesses. This is happening as SEBI wants that there should be no conflict of interest between the two businesses.

On Wednesday, IDFC Mutual Fund declared a dividend of 20 per cent for its IDFC Indian GDP Growth Fund. This means that for every share of IDFC with a face value of Rs. 10, the company will pay a dividend of Rs. 0.20.

The record date for paying dividends is May 31, 2010. The company said that the Indian economy has bounced back from the slowdown in a major manner and that means that the economy is going back on the fast-track.

State Bank of India's mutual fund, SBI MF has decided to come up with an open-ended equity scheme.

The name of the fund will be SBI PSU Fund and it will be investing money in the public sector units of the country. The money will be invested through the stocks of these PSUs rather than going through any other means. But the bonds and other debt instruments that are issued by the PSUs will also considered as an investment tool.

The fund opened on Monday and will close on June 14.

Even after the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has asked the insurance companies to make a disclosure on the Agent commission, the experts in the industry see little gain coming out of the move as the industry officials are of a view that it will give only a minor benefit for levelling the playfield for mutual funds vis-à-vis ULIPs.

In fact, experts are of a view that the Mutual Funds industry will take a little time more than expected to recover from the dip in distributor revenue due to the entry load ban.

Keeping in mind that infrastructure is one area where India still lags behind as compared to the developed and even some developing nations, it opens up a wide opportunity for the investors to grab in the market. Experts are of a view that the Mutual funds that are investing money in infrastructure projects certainly offer a promising return in the long rather than other options available in the market.

Affirming the investor's right to sue over fees, the U. S. Supreme Court on Tuesday sent a lawsuit over fees in the mutual fund industry back to a lower court.

The Los Angeles Times has reported that in a 9-0 ruling, justices sent a suit against Harris Associates back to the U. S. court of appeals in Chicago, where the suit was dismissed two years ago.

The lower court was instructed to explore if the fees Harris Associates charged showed the firm as having struck a deal with its board of directors.

IDBI Asset Management Ltd. (IDBI AMC) has got approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to launch its own mutual fund.

IDBI AMC is the wholly-owned subsidiary of IDBI Bank. It has plans to come up with its fixed income and equity based category of MFs, soon.

Birla Sun Life and the Bank of India (BoI) have signed a Memorandum of Agreement, for distribution of MF schemes. As per the agreement, the public-sector bank would become the distribution partner for selling Birla's mutual fund.

After this deal, Birla will be using all the 3,100 branches of BoI for selling its products, said a press release by Birla Sun Life.

The mutual fund industry's assets declined 4.1% or Rs 32,853.79 crore during January as the banks pulled out following a directive from the Reserve Bank of India.

The industry's average asset under management (AUM) is at 7,61,632.26 crore at the end of January, according to the data released by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI). This is second month in a row to record a drop in AUM for the industry.

Securities and Exchange Board of India announced on Friday the stockbrokers who are registered will now be allowed to sell mutual funds and undertake all required transactions on behalf of their clients post proper authorization, a move which could widen the mutual funds distribution network even further.

"The infrastructure that already exists for the secondary market transaction through the stock exchanges with its reach over 1,500 towns and cities, through over two lakh stock exchange terminals can be used for facilitating transactions in mutual fund schemes", the SEBI circular detailing the development read.