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Liquid Funds
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List of Liquid Mutual Funds in 2024
Top 10 Liquid Mutual Funds to invest in 2024
Below are the liquid mutual funds in india:
1. ICICI Prudential Liquid Fund Direct (G)
ICICI Prudential Liquid Fund Direct (G) is a Debt fund that has delivered a 1 Year return of 7.4%, a 3 Years return of 6.4% and a 5 Years return of 5.4%. The fund has an expense ratio of 0.2% and an AUM of ₹50756 crores as of 2024-12-26.The minimum SIP investment is ₹1000 and the minimum lump sum investment is ₹1000. The fund allocates 0107.81% to debt and -7.81% to other assets.
2. Axis Liquid Fund Direct (G)
Axis Liquid Fund Direct (G) is a Debt fund that has delivered a 1 Year return of 7.5%, a 3 Years return of 6.5% and a 5 Years return of 5.4%. The fund has an expense ratio of 0.1% and an AUM of ₹33183 crores as of 2024-12-26.The minimum SIP investment is ₹1000 and the minimum lump sum investment is ₹1000. The fund allocates 0109.53% to debt and -9.53% to other assets.
3. SBI Liquid Fund Direct (G)
SBI Liquid Fund Direct (G) is a Debt fund that has delivered a 1 Year return of 7.4%, a 3 Years return of 6.4% and a 5 Years return of 5.4%. The fund has an expense ratio of 0.2% and an AUM of ₹64117 crores as of 2024-12-26.The minimum SIP investment is ₹1000 and the minimum lump sum investment is ₹1000. The fund allocates 0101.54% to debt and -1.54% to other assets.
4. UTI Liquid Fund Direct (G)
UTI Liquid Fund Direct (G) is a Debt fund that has delivered a 1 Year return of 7.4%, a 3 Years return of 6.5% and a 5 Years return of 5.4%. The fund has an expense ratio of 0.2% and an AUM of ₹25219 crores as of 2024-12-26.The minimum SIP investment is ₹1000 and the minimum lump sum investment is ₹1000. The fund allocates 093.32% to debt and 6.68% to other assets.
5. HDFC Liquid Fund Direct (G)
HDFC Liquid Fund Direct (G) is a Debt fund that has delivered a 1 Year return of 7.4%, a 3 Years return of 6.4% and a 5 Years return of 5.3%. The fund has an expense ratio of 0.2% and an AUM of ₹72653 crores as of 2024-12-26. It was Launched on 2013-01-01. The minimum SIP investment is ₹1000 and the minimum lump sum investment is ₹1000. The fund allocates 0101.83% to debt and -1.83% to other assets.
6. Mahindra Manulife Liquid Fund Direct (G)
Mahindra Manulife Liquid Fund Direct (G) is a Debt fund that has delivered a 1 Year return of 7.5%, a 3 Years return of 6.5% and a 5 Years return of 5.5%. The fund has an expense ratio of 0.2% and an AUM of ₹1311 crores as of 2024-12-26. It was Launched on 2016-07-04. The minimum SIP investment is ₹1000 and the minimum lump sum investment is ₹1000. The fund allocates 0101.10% to debt and -1.10% to other assets.
7. Union Liquid Fund Direct (G)
Union Liquid Fund Direct (G) is a Debt fund that has delivered a 1 Year return of 7.5%, a 3 Years return of 6.5% and a 5 Years return of 5.4%. The fund has an expense ratio of 0.1% and an AUM of ₹4337 crores as of 2024-12-26. It was Launched on 2013-01-01. The minimum SIP investment is ₹1000 and the minimum lump sum investment is ₹5000. The fund allocates 0103.67% to debt and -3.67% to other assets.
8. Quant Liquid Fund Direct (G)
Quant Liquid Fund Direct (G) is a Debt fund that has delivered a 1 Year return of 7.3%, a 3 Years return of 6.4% and a 5 Years return of 5.8%. The fund has an expense ratio of 0.3% and an AUM of ₹1845 crores as of 2024-12-26.The minimum SIP investment is ₹1000 and the minimum lump sum investment is ₹5000. The fund allocates 083.03% to debt and 16.97% to other assets.
9. Aditya Birla Sun Life Liquid Fund Direct (G)
Aditya Birla Sun Life Liquid Fund Direct (G) is a Debt fund that has delivered a 1 Year return of 7.5%, a 3 Years return of 6.5% and a 5 Years return of 5.4%. The fund has an expense ratio of 0.2% and an AUM of ₹44521 crores as of 2024-12-26.The minimum SIP investment is ₹1000 and the minimum lump sum investment is ₹1000. The fund allocates 0112.33% to debt and -12.33% to other assets.
10. Baroda BNP Paribas Liquid Fund Direct (G)
Baroda BNP Paribas Liquid Fund Direct (G) is a Debt fund that has delivered a 1 Year return of 7.4%, a 3 Years return of 6.5% and a 5 Years return of 5.4%. The fund has an expense ratio of 0.2% and an AUM of ₹11193 crores as of 2024-12-26.The minimum SIP investment is ₹1000 and the minimum lump sum investment is ₹5000. The fund allocates 0100.15% to debt and -0.15% to other assets.
What are Liquid Funds?
Liquid Funds are the mutual funds that invest in debt instruments to yield a predictable return and mature in 91 days. Liquid Funds are money market instruments like certificates of deposit, treasury bills, and commercial papers. There is no lock-in period for these funds and hence are highly liquid. The risk associated with liquid funds is the least compared to other debt funds.
Open-ended debt mutual funds that invest in debt instruments to yield a predictable return and mature in 91 days are liquid funds. The debt securities they invest in are of high credit quality. They are money market instruments like certificates of deposit, treasury bills, and commercial papers with 91 days maturity. The NAV for liquid funds is calculated for 365 days, unlike other debt funds whose NAV is calculated for only business days. There is no lock in period for these funds and hence are highly liquid. The risk associated with liquid funds is least when compared to other classes of debt mutual funds. These funds do not have any entry or exit loads. These low risk funds give higher returns than a savings bank account.
What are the Types of Money Market Instruments?
Liquid Fund schemes invest in money market instruments. These are certificates of deposits, commercial papers, and treasury bills.
1. Certificate of Deposit
A deposit of money in a bank or a financial institution is a Certificate of Deposit (CD). It is similar to Fixed Deposit but differs in two ways. CD is only for large sums of money, and CD is freely negotiable. CDs are highly liquid, considered safe, and give returns higher than t-bills. CDs are issued at a discount, and the tenure ranges from 7 days up to a year.
2. Commercial Paper (CP)
An unsecured promissory note issued by high rated companies to meet short term capital needs by raising money from the market. The tenure ranges from a day to 270 days. The returns are higher than t-bills but not as secured as them. CPs are traded in the secondary market.
3. Treasury Bills
Treasury bills (t-bills) are issued by the central government and are one of the safest investment options available in the money market. These are zero-risk instruments, and hence the returns from these are not high. T-bills come with different maturity periods like 91 days, 182 days, and 364 days and are issued a discount to their face value. They are circulated by primary and secondary markets.
Who Should Invest in Liquid Funds?
Liquid funds are ideal for investors having idle cash lying in the banks and are looking to invest in short term instruments. A liquid fund gives more returns than a savings bank account. Hence, instead of parking the excess funds in a bank, investors can choose liquid funds.
When an investor has surplus funds in the form of bonus or capital gains, incentives, gifts from family, etc. can be invested in a liquid fund first. And later, using an STP (Systematic Transfer Plan) can be invested in equities and take advantage of rupee cost averaging.
Things to Consider While Investing in Liquid Funds
1. Risk
The risk relates to volatility in Net Asset Value (NAV) in mutual funds. Liquid fund’s NAV doesn’t fluctuate too much because the underlying asset’s maturity varies between 60 days to 91 days. Therefore, this prevents the fund’s NAV from too many fluctuations. However, the value of the fund might drop significantly when the underlying asset’s credit rating is suddenly downgraded. It implies that liquid funds are not entirely risk free.
2. Returns
Returns from the liquid fund are way higher than 4% returns offered by traditional savings bank accounts. Historic liquid funds returns have been in around 6%. No investment guarantees return. Similarly, liquid funds do not guarantee any returns; however, more often than not, liquid funds have yielded positive returns upon redemption.
3. Financial Goals
Investing in the right asset class based on financial goals is the best investment strategy. Liquid funds are best suited for parking cash for the short term. These funds are also suitable for creating an emergency fund. Not just for earning higher returns, but the redemption of funds can be done faster with liquid mutual fund schemes.
4. Investment Horizon
Liquid Funds are suitable for short term investments, say up to three months. Liquid mutual funds are meant for investing surplus cash rather than having them sit idle in a bank account. For longer investment horizons, i.e., beyond three months up to one year, ultra short term funds are an excellent option to earn relatively higher returns.
5. Cost
Liquid Mutual Fund schemes charge fund management fees and other fees related to operating the fund. The total cost is called the Expense Ratio. As per the new SEBI guidelines, the upper limit for expense ratio of Liquid Funds is 1.05%. Considering the fund manager’s strategy of holding the asset until maturity, liquid mutual funds maintain a low cost ratio to generate relatively higher returns over a short period.
6. Tax
Gains from debt instruments are taxed. The rate of tax depends on the investment duration in the debt fund. Investments held for a period of three years attract Short Term Capital Gains Tax (STCG), the earnings are added to the taxable income of the investor and are taxed as per the applicable income tax slab rate. While investments held for greater than three years, they are taxed at the Long Term Capital Gains Tax (LTCG) rate of 20% after indexation.
As per the Finance Bill 2023, debt mutual funds will no longer have the LTCG benefit. Thus, from April 1st 2023, capital gains from debt fund investments will be taxed as per the investor’s Income Tax slab rate.
How to Choose Best Liquid Funds?
1. Historical Returns
Though past returns do not guarantee future returns, it’s a good indicator to understand the fund’s performance. Check whether the fund has consistently performed well over the years and outperformed its benchmark and category returns. If it has performed well in the past, it is expected that the fund will perform equally well in the future. The track record of the AMC also has to be checked before investing in a liquid fund.
2. Credit Rating
For Liquid funds, it’s necessary to check the credit ratings given of the underlying asse
ts. A high credit rating ensures minimum credit risk. Credit risk is the default risk of the security issuer. It is defaulting on the principal amount or interest payments. The highest rating given to any security is AAA, which ensures high credit quality.
3. Portfolio Allocation
Understand the various schemes and instruments in which the fund has invested.
4. Average Maturity of Portfolio
Look for the average maturity duration of the portfolio. It’s good to invest in Liquid funds with an average maturity of three months or less. Short term maturity ensures that the portfolio doesn’t fluctuate too much because of interest rate changes that happen in the long term.
5. Expense Ratio
Pick a liquid fund with a low expense ratio. Lower expense ratio increases the overall returns.
6. Fund Objective
Choose a plan amongst the growth plans, daily dividend, weekly dividend, and monthly dividend plans that best suit the risk appetite and investment objective.
When should you invest in Liquid Funds?
Investors can invest in liquid funds in the following circumstances:
- When the investors have surplus funds.
- When the investors have short term goals with tenure of 3 months.
- When the investors are unsure of when they need the funds, and liquid funds are a better choice than a savings bank account.
- When the investor wants to invest surplus money in equity, but wants to take advantage of SIP.
- Then the investor can invest a lump sum amount in a liquid fund and then do an STP to an equity fund.
- Another popular investment practice is to maintain an emergency fund with living expenses for up to 6 months. Investors can park their emergency funds in the liquid funds to earn an extra return on it.
Tax on liquid funds
Returns from Liquid Funds are categorized as below for taxation purpose:
- Short Term Capital Gains (STCG): If the Investment is made for less than three years, short term capital gains are added to the investor’s taxable income and are taxed as per the applicable income tax slab rate. For example, if an investor earns INR 50,000 by investing in Liquid funds for three years, this amount is added to their taxable income, and the investor is taxed accordingly.
- Long Term Capital Gains (LTCG): For investments held beyond three years, long term capital gains are taxed at 20%, with the benefit of indexation.
From April 1st 2023, capital gains from debt funds will be taxed as per the investor’s IT slab rate, irrespective of the holding period. Thus, debt funds will no longer have the LTCG benefit.
Benefits of Investing in Liquid Funds?
- No Lock-in period: Withdrawals from liquid funds are fulfilled within 24 hours on business days.
- No entry and exit loads: Unlike FDs, Liquid funds do not have any entry and exit loads (but you need to hold for at least 7 days).
- Low interest rate risk: Liquid mutual funds have low interest rate risk as they are highly liquid and invest in instruments with high credit rating.
- Diversification: Liquid funds offer good diversification for investor’s portfolio. Investors with excess cash can park it in liquid funds.
How to Invest in Liquid Funds?
Step 1: Sign Up/Sign In to Scripbox
Step 2: Scripbox has curated portfolios for investors for multiple needs. For liquid funds the Scripbox curated portfolio is “Be Emergency-ready”. Select this portfolio to invest in liquid funds.
Step 3: Review fund recommendations and Continue
Step 4: Provide contact details and date of birth
Step 5: Provide PAN details and complete e-KYC
Step 6: Decide how much to invest in the portfolio and invest in it. Happy Investing!
You may also like to read about the Ultra Short Term Funds vs Liquid Funds
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, you can invest a lump sum amount in liquid funds. In order to earn high returns on your corpus start a Systematic Transfer Plan (STP) from debt fund to ELSS Fund. This will not only help you earn a high return on your corpus but also allow you to make a systematic investment.
The SEBI has formalized graded exit load structure on liquid funds since October 2019.
As per the new structure, holding an investment for one day in the liquid fund would draw an exit load of 0.007%, for two days the exit-load will be 0.0065%, followed by 0.006%, 0.0055%, 0.0050%, 0.0045% on the third, fourth, fifth and sixth day respectively.
However, the exit-load from the seventh day onwards will be nil.
Owing to its high liquidity and higher returns, Liquid Funds are a better option than FD. Investors choosing liquid funds over a fixed deposit may have tax benefits on long term investments. These funds can offer higher returns than FDs for investors who have a lower risk appetite.
However, the return may be higher in Liquid Funds but the same depends largely on the market volatility. While Fixed Deposit is a long term capital gain but the returns are fixed and do not change with the market conditions. However, this benefit is not available for debt fund investments from April 1st 2023. As per the Finance Bill 2023, capital gains from debt funds will be taxed as per the investor’s IT slab rate.
Liquid Funds being Debt Funds are usually invested in short term assets like treasury bills, certificates of deposits, Government securities and commercial papers. This ensures capital protection and liquidity to its investors. Also, the maturity period of the instruments in a liquid fund is less than 91 days which does not affect the interest rate on maturity. Hence, liquid funds are a better option than savings accounts.
Liquid Funds are a type of debt funds. Hence, these funds are subject to tax as applicable to debt funds. However, any fund invested for a short period of time is tax-free. But an investment held for more than three years comes under the long term capital gains which are taxable at 20% with indexation. From April 1st 2023, capital gains will be taxed as per the investor’s IT slab rate, irrespective of the holding period. Thus, the LTCG benefit is no longer available for debt funds.
Yes, you can invest in a liquid fund on a Saturday. However, Saturday being a weekend one can only submit a request. But the processing of the same will start only on Monday.
Thus, to invest your money on a weekend you will need to create a request on Friday before the closing time of the fund house. The closing time of liquid fund on a weekend is between 1 Pm to 3 PM.
Liquid funds are ideal for investors having idle cash lying in the banks and are looking to invest in short term instruments. A liquid fund gives more returns than a savings bank account. Hence, instead of parking the excess funds in a bank, investors can choose liquid funds. When an investor has surplus funds in the form of bonus or capital gains, incentives, gifts from family, etc. can be invested in a liquid fund first. And later, using an STP (Systematic Transfer Plan) can be invested in equities and take advantage of rupee cost averaging.
Yes, you can withdraw your money from liquid funds. You can be easily withdraw since the fund does not have any lock-in period or exit load. The process might take up to 2 or 3 days for the full amount inclusive of interest earned to be credited to your account
Liquid funds are debt funds in the first place investing in debt instruments at a high quality and good credit rating. The example of such funds are certificates of deposit, treasury bills, and commercial papers.
A liquid fund is a part of an investment portfolio that serves as an emergency fund considering its high liquidity and low risk. However, it is not recommended to keep all your investment in liquid funds since returns generated are relatively low. It is recommended to invest in an emergency fund enough to cover 3 months to 6 months expenses in addition to any idle money that you will need to use in a short period. Liquid mutual funds are meant for investing surplus cash rather than having them sit idle in a bank account. For longer investment horizons, i.e., beyond three months up to one year, ultra short term funds are an excellent option to earn relatively higher returns.
It is unlikely to happen that liquid funds give negative returns as they are one of the safest forms of investment based on their short duration and type of instruments. However, if the market crashes drastically or underlying asset’s credit rating is suddenly downgraded, this will affect the NAV and reflect negatively on the investment returns.
Yes, SIP is allowed in liquid funds. Investing in liquid funds can be either on a lump sum or SIP. It is possible to arrange with the fund for a SIP plan where you will be to deposit your idle money or monthly savings
Liquid fund is only one type of debt fund. Debt funds invest mainly in fixed income earning instruments such as government securities such as stocks, bonds, and other asset classes. The different types of debt funds vary in their duration of investment, level of risk, expected returns.
Liquid funds are offer high liquidity and are not subject to any exit load. It takes up to 2 or 3 working days for the full amount inclusive of interest earned to be credited to your savings bank account
Yes, you can redeem the units of liquid funds instantly. You just need to place a redemption request with the AMC. Within 2 to 3 working days the redemption proceeds will be credit to your savings bank account.
You can buy liquid funds through any distributor or fund house provided that you have completed the KYC compliance to be eligible for the investment. Different schemes vary in their average returns, credit rating, and expense ratio.
Liquid fund’s NAV doesn’t fluctuate too much because the underlying asset’s maturity varies between 60 days to 91 days. Therefore, this prevents the fund’s NAV from too many fluctuations. However, the value of the fund might drop significantly when the underlying asset’s credit rating is suddenly downgraded. It implies that liquid funds are not entirely risk free.