What are Debt Mutual Funds?
There are different types of Mutual Funds that invest in various securities, depending on their investment strategy.
Debt Mutual Funds mainly invest in a mix of debt or fixed income securities such as Treasury Bills, Government Securities, Corporate Bonds, Money Market instruments and other debt securities of different time horizons. Generally, debt securities have a fixed maturity date & pay a fixed rate of interest.
The returns of a debt mutual fund comprises of -
- Interest income
- Capital appreciation / depreciation in the value of the security due to changes in market dynamics
Debt securities are also assigned a 'credit rating', which helps assess the ability of the issuer of the securities / bonds to pay back their debt, over a certain period of time. These ratings are issued by independent rating organisations such as CARE, CRISIL, FITCH, Brickwork and ICRA. Ratings are one amongst various criteria used by Fund houses to evaluate the credit worthiness of issuers of fixed income securities.
There is a wide range of fixed income or Debt Mutual Funds available to suit the needs of different investors, based on their:
- Investment horizon
- Ability to bear risk
