Is it possible to get securities allotted in public offering directly in the electronic form?

Yes, it is possible to get securities allotted to in Public Offerings directly in the electronic form. In the public issue application form there is a provision to indicate the manner in which an investor wants the securities allotted. Investor has to mention the Beneficial Owner ID and the name and ID of the DP on the application form. Any allotment made will be directly credited into the BO account of investor and you can trade immediately after trading starts on the exchange.

How are cash corporate benefit such as dividend / interest received?

In a demat environment, you are required to give your bank account details to your DP. The concerned company obtains the details of beneficiary holders and their holdings as on the date of the book closure / record date from Depositories. The payment to the investors will be made by the company through the ECS (Electronic Clearing Service) facility, wherever available. Thus the dividend / interest will be credited to your bank account directly. Where ECS facility is not available dividend / interest will be given by issuing warrants on which your bank account details are printed. The bank account details will be those which you would have mentioned in your account opening form or changed thereafter.

How would one receive non-cash corporate benefit such as bonus etc.?

The concerned company obtains the details of beneficiary holders and their holdings as on the date of the book closure / record date from depositories. The entitlement will be credited by the company directly into the BO account of the investor.

Who should be contacted in case of discrepancies in corporate benefits?

In case of discrepancies in corporate benefits, one can approach the company / its R&T Agent.
Demat securities

A mutual fund is a company that pools money from many investors and invests that money IN various places viz. in stocks, bonds, short-term money-market instruments, other securities or assets. It can also be a combination of any of these investments. The portfolio of any mutual fund is actually the combined holdings it owns. Each share or unit of the mutual fund stands for proportionate ownership of any investor in the mutual fund holding and the income those holdings generates. There are certain terminologies of the mutual fund which one needs to know to get a fair idea before investing in these instruments.

What is NAV

This is the underlying value of a unit of mutual fund. It is calculated as the market value of its assets by subtracting its liabilities and then dividing by the number of units issued by the mutual fund. It is basically the total value of the portfolio of the fund less its liabilities. The NAV is normally calculated on a daily basis. The NAV is by and large below the market price because the current value of the fund’s assets is higher than the historical financial statements which are normally used for calculating the NAV.

Features of Mutual Funds:

Some of distinctive characteristics of mutual funds include the following:

# Investors purchase mutual fund shares from the fund itself (or through a broker) instead of from other investors in a secondary market (in Stock Exchange)

# The mutual funds shares are purchased at per share net asset value (NAV) of the fund. Apart from that price an investor may have to pay any fees that the fund imposes at the time of purchase in the form of specified entry loads.

# Mutual fund shares are “redeemable,” means one can sell one’s shares back to the fund or to a broker for the fund.

# Mostly Mutual funds are constantly creating and selling new shares to attract and accommodate new investors.