A Study on Investor Awareness of Debt Mutual Fund – With Special Reference to Employees in Information Technology Sector in Chennai

Abstract

Mutual fund debt schemes have gained lot of popularity over the last few years. Individual investors held 3.64 lakh crores in debt mutual fund in September 2017 which is 22% higher than what it was in September 2016. There are various options available in debt mutual funds, Investor has to study the characteristics of the fund and select the appropriate fund based on his risk profile and time frame of the investment. Generally people who have studied core finance and those who are employed in financial institutions have a good idea about the various investment avenues. In case of people employed in Information technology sector they are generally paid more and has more exposure towards latest technology advancements, this research is intended to analyse their financial literacy level with respect to various debt mutual funds schemes. Towards this main objective data was collected using a pretested schedule from 120 respondentswho are employed in information technology sector in Chennai region,The data collected were analysed using appropriate statistical tools. The results indicate that there is a significant relationship between age and awareness about gilt short term mutual fund, there is a significant relationship between age and awareness about hybrid debt oriented mutual fund. The results also indicate that there is significant difference between purpose of investment in debt mutual funds and source to know about mutual fund. Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor analysis were used to shortlist the opinion of the respondents about debt mutual fund.