What is Net Asset Value (NAV) in Mutual Funds?
NAV is the acronym for Net Asset Value, and it represents the net value of an entity. In the case of mutual funds, NAV means the market value per unit of the fund. NAV of a mutual fund scheme is derived basis the difference between total assets and total liabilities divided by the total number of outstanding units.
A mutual fund NAV represents the per share or unit price of a mutual fund scheme on a specific date or time. Usually, the NAV of a new mutual fund (NFO) scheme begins at Rs. 10 and gradually increases as the assets under management grows. All mutual fund schemes including open-ended, closed-ended, and interval schemes across equity, debt and hybrid categories have NAVs which are driven by market movements.
Calculation of Net Asset Value
The formula used for the calculation of Net Asset Value is:
Net Asset Value = (Total Assets - Total Liabilities) / Total Number of Outstanding Shares
The assets of a mutual fund scheme include its investments, which can be equity shares, preference shares etc. in case of equity mutual funds or debentures, bonds, government securities in case of debt mutual funds and cash holdings. The liabilities include fund manager fees, accrued expenses and payments.
NAV for Mutual Funds
Mutual Funds are not traded in real-time. Considering the various assets and liabilities, the NAV of Mutual Funds is calculated based on the trading method. Let us check out what these assets and liabilities are.
Assets under Mutual Funds
Assets under Mutual Funds include the total market value of the fund’s
Investments
Receivables
Cash and cash equivalents
Accrued income
Based on the closing price of the various securities, the market value of these assets is calculated at the end of the day. The total sum of all these assets and their variants together constitutes assets.
Liabilities under Mutual Funds
Liabilities under Mutual Funds include:
Money owed to the lenders
Outstanding payments
Fees and charges owed to associated entities
Foreign liabilities, if any
Accrued expenses
The foreign liabilities include shares of NRIs, sale proceeds pending repatriation, and income or dividends for which payments are pending to non-residents. Staff salaries, operating expenses, management expenses, distribution, etc., falls under the accrued expenses category.
Importance of NAV for Investors
Investors consider the NAV and price of an equity share the same. But there are differences in calculation. In the case of calculation of the price of equity shares, only the liquid assets of the company are included. Whereas when NAV is calculated, both liquid and non-liquid assets are considered. While the total equity represents a company’s working capital, NAV depicts a company’s total monetary worth.
Calculation of NAV
NAV can be calculated in two ways. They are:
Daily Valuation
Every day, once the stock market closes at 3:30 pm, all the mutual fund investment companies evaluate the total worth of their investment portfolio. On the next day, the market reopens with the previous day’s closing price. Using the formula mentioned above, the fund houses calculate NAV after deducting all the expenses.
General Calculation
The general NAV is the price of the equity share and the total cost of the individual shares. The general calculation gives the market value of an asset and is subject to market movement.
How Net Asset Value Affects the Performance of a Fund?
Investors generally believe that lower NAV means the scheme is cheaper and better. But this is not the correct way to judge mutual fund schemes. A fund with a lower NAV may not always be the best investment.
For example, consider two funds, Fund A and Fund B with NAV of Rs. 10 and Rs. 100 respectively. After a year, the NAV of both funds grows by 10%. So, the NAV for Fund A becomes Rs. 11 while the NAV of Fund B grows to Rs. 110. As you can see, a 10% growth in NAVs of both the funds reflects in the same manner, irrespective of the base NAV. So, the NAV doesn’t really matter. What matters is the performance of the fund, which depends upon its underlying stocks and investments.
So, while a rising and falling NAV can help you judge the short-term performance of a fund, you should instead focus on long-term performance parameters like stock selection, Sharpe ratio, Standard Deviation, etc.
NAV Vs Stock Price
The NAV pricing structure for the trading of shares of mutual funds varies predominantly from that of common stocks or equities that are issued by companies and listed on a stock exchange.
Through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) and possibly subsequent additional offerings, a company issues a limited number of equity shares that are sold on markets like the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The supply and demand for shares in the market determines the price of stocks. The only factor influencing the value or pricing of equities is market demand.
On the other hand, the value of a mutual fund is decided by the total amount invested in the fund, its outstanding shares, and its operating expenses. Nevertheless, the fund's performance is not shown by the NAV. The NAV of a mutual fund is relatively unimportant for evaluating the performance of the fund because fund shareholders get almost all of its income and realised capital gains. Rather, the best metric to evaluate a mutual fund is its total return, which takes into account both the dividend payments and the performance of the underlying securities.
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FAQ
What is the difference between NAV and AUM?
NAV represents the per unit price of a mutual fund scheme on a specific date or time, whereas AUM refers to the total value of assets managed by the scheme.
Is a higher or lower NAV better?
Net Asset Value depicts how the assets have performed in the previous year. It does not matter how high or low NAV is. Hence, NAV shouldn’t be the best parameter to use while deciding which funds to invest in.
What happens if NAV increases?
If your current NAV is greater than your purchase NAV, then it simply means that the fund’s NAV has grown in the specific period. NAV has an impact only on the number of units you may receive. If you select a scheme with high Net Asset Value, the number of units you will get will be less. However, your investment’s value will remain the same.
What causes NAV to decrease?
NAV decreases when the market value of the underlying stocks in a mutual fund’s portfolio falls. The NAV of a fund can also decrease when a dividend is declared.
What factors affect NAV?
The factors affecting the Net Asset Value are:
Type of the mutual fund
Fund expenses
Profits earned from the investment
Losses booked from the investment
Dividend pay-outs.
Exit or entry of the investor.
How to check NAV of Mutual Fund?
You can login to m.Stock and under the Products section, click on Mutual Funds. Here, you can type any fund, you wish to and on the same screen you will find the NAV of the desired fund. Alternatively, you can either check the NAV on the official website of the particular Asset Management Company (AMC) or the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI). Since the latter will have the NAVs of different funds across India, you must carefully enter the AMC and scheme details to get results.
Should you invest in an MF with a high NAV?
Net Asset Value depicts how the assets have performed in the previous year. It does not matter how high or low NAV is. Hence, NAV shouldn’t be the best parameter to use while deciding which funds to invest in.