ABSTRACT

                                   Today a lot of investment opportunities are available to the investors in the financial markets. Investors can invest in corporate bonds, debentures, bank deposits, post office schemes etc. But nowadays investors opt for portfolio managers to invest money on their behalf. These portfolio managers are experts in stock market operations and invest the money in such a way that the investors would get minimum assured returns. Today many institutions are busy in providing wealth management services to the investors. But these services are very costly. Thus in order to help the investor’s mutual funds provide a protective shed to the small and big investors. Indian mutual fund has gained a lot of popularity from the past few years. Earlier only UTI enjoyed the monopoly in this industry but with the passage of time many new players entered the market, due to which the UTI monopoly breaks down and the industry faces a severe competition. As the time passes this industry has become a buzz word in the Indian financial system. So it is very important to know the investors’ perception about this industry. The present study analyses the mutual fund investments in relation to investor’s behavior. Investors’ opinion and perception has been studied relating to various issues like type of mutual fund scheme, main objective behind investing in mutual fund scheme, role of financial advisors and brokers, investors’ opinion relating to factors that attract them to invest in mutual funds, sources of information, deficiencies in the services provided by the mutual fund managers, challenges before the Indian mutual fund industry etc.

Keywords: Mutual fund, investors’ perception, investors’ behavior, objectives, challenges.