The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is expected to retain the interest rate for its six crore account holders at 8.5% in 2010-11, with a formal announcement likely to be made in August. "I hope that the recommendation of 8.5% by the finance and investment committee of the EPFO will be retained," Central Provident Fund Commissioner S Chatterjee said. "The EPF rate will hopefully be finalised in the next EPF Board meeting, which is expected in August," he said. Asked if there was any shortfall in return from the current payout of 8.5%, Chatterjee said there was no deficit.
MUTUAL funds are considered to be an investment option for those who do not generally devote a lot of time to monitoring and managing their portfolios. Investors experience both good as well as tough times as far as mutual fund investments are concerned. But while evaluating the portfolio of their equity mutual fund holdings there are a few points that one should check to know about the level of risk that they are facing. Often there are situations where there is a higher risk than what was estimated initially. Here are a few ways to evaluate various risk levels. Individual holding exposure : The portfolio of the equity fund where one has invested or plans to invest needs to be scrutinised to see whether the risk levels are such that could lead to a larger volatility in the holdings. Depending upon this factor and the risk taking ability of the investor the choice about a particular fund as an investment should be made. One key point to watch out is whether there is a large ex...
