PERFORMANCE OF MUTUAL FUNDS- AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

The growth of Mutual Fund industry has been significant since the beginning. Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established in 1963 by an Act of Parliament. The first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964. At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs. 6,700 crores of assets under management .Since then, Many AMC’s has started and the industry is flourishing. Though industry has fallen in 2008, it picked up and has been rising at a significant growth rate. Presently it has about 45 AMC’s and 11798 schemes with a CAGR of 22% over past three years. Though there are several investment options available today, mutual fund is an investment option that has become very attractive for retail investors who are interested in financial markets but do not have the time, expertise and experience in good stock picking. The mutual fund industry in the country has so far been focusing on urban markets and corporate investors. The time has come for the industry top enetrateintorural markets which have been hithertolyinguntapped. There is a greater need for an analysis whether the mutual funds are carrying out the objectives for which they have been started and are performing according to the expectation of the ordinary investors. So performance appraisal of these funds is expected to help the investors in taking respective investment decisions. Moreover, there is a need to examine the perceptions of investors so that mutual funds are able to provide proper schemes suitable to investors. It is with this factin mind that the present study