Mutual Funds’ exposure in banking stock hits four-month high

Axis MF launches new close-ended equity scheme

Mumbai: Axis Mutual Fund has launched Axis Small Cap Fund,a close-ended equity scheme with a 5-year lock-in period,a company release said. As per the fund house,the scheme will be open-ended after the completion of five years. The new fund offer,which has opened for subscription from November 11,will be closed on November 25,2013. This scheme aims to generate long-term capital appreciation from a diversified portfolio of equity and equity-related instruments of small cap companies. Selective small caps have historically outperformed over large caps over a long period of time… The valuation gap between small and mid or large caps has widened over the last few years and this presents us with an opportunity to pick quality-strong business operating in niche markets with healthy balance sheets at lower prices, managing director and chief executive officer of Axis MF,Chandresh Kumar Nigam said.

RBI asks banks to fine-tune recovery,due diligence for NPAs

Mumbai: In the wake of deteriorating asset quality in the banking system,which is hovering at record highs,the Reserve Bank today asked banks to strengthen their due diligence and improve the loan recovery process. Banks need to not only follow the various measures put in place by the RBI and the government effectively for resolution and recovery of bad loans but also to strengthen their due diligence,credit appraisal and post sanction loan monitoring systems to minimise and mitigate the problems of increasing non-performing assets (NPAs), the RBI said in its Trends and progress of banking report 2012-13. Gross NPAs as per cent of gross advances for scheduled commercial banks stood at 3.6 per cent as at March 2013 as against 3.1 per cent previous fiscal,the RBI said.