Mr. Mahendra Kumar Jajoo
Chief Investment Officer (CIO) - Mirae Asset Investment Managers (India) Pvt. Ltd .
Mr. Mahendra Kumar Jajoo is responsible for managing fixed income assets across all products. He has over 31 years of experience in the field of financial services including 17 years of experience in Fixed Income funds management. He is overall responsible for supervising all Debt schemes of the Mirae Asset Investment Managers (India) Private Limited. In his prior assignment, he has been associated with organizations like Pramerica Asset Managers Pvt. Ltd., Tata Asset Management Ltd., ABN AMRO Asset Management Ltd and ICICI Group. Mr. Jajoo manages Mirae Asset Aggressive Hybrid Fund, Mirae Asset Balanced Advantage Fund, Mirae Asset Equity Savings Fund & Mirae Mr. Mahendra Kumar Jajoo Asset Nifty SDL Jun 2028 Index Fund.
Q1. The RBI's Monetary Policy Committee, on October 9, decided to maintain the key repo rate at 6.5%, shifting its stance from "withdrawal of accommodation" to "neutral." What are your thoughts on this change?
Ans: The change in policy stance to neutral came as a pleasant surprise, against the broader market expectations of status quo. This has reinforced expectations of commencement of a rate cut cycle soon. Also, timelines on rate cuts by most analysts is also shifting towards December 24 from early 2025.
Q2. What key economic indicators are you monitoring that could impact fixed income markets in the coming months?
Ans: Some of the key monitorables for MPC and fixed income markets remains inflation, growth and global developments (geopolitics and global central bank actions). Apart from these key factors, it is also essential to keep track of the speeches from the monetary committee members in order the gauge the direction the policy can take in near term.
Q3. The 10-year Indian benchmark yield decreased by about 13 basis points, while the 5-year yield fell by roughly 8 basis points. What could be the possible reasons for this fall?
Ans: As mentioned above the change in stance came in against the market expectations. In such situation the longer end is likely to react more aggressively than the shorter end in expectations of rate cuts. Therefore, longer end witnessed drop of 13bps vs 8bps in 5Y.
Q4. What strategies are you employing to manage risks in your fixed income portfolio as market conditions evolve?
Ans: Our portfolios are carefully constructed taking liquidity, credit and asset-liability profile risks into consideration. This not only helps us to manoeuvre through various situation smoothly but also helps us to navigate the volatility and take necessary portfolio changes at ease.
Q5. How is technology changing the way fixed income markets operate, and what opportunities does this present?
Ans: While tech has come leaps and bounds, for fixed income markets it still largely remains at nascent stage, fixed income market markets still remain very traditional phone market. There lies lot of opportunities in fixed income market for technology development aspect.
Q6. What is the current market sentiment among investors regarding fixed income, and how do you see it evolving?
Ans: Fixed income market outlook has been changing rapidly of-late with market rates moving sharply in anticipation of evolving macros. While the sentiments are increasingly turning upbeat, investors seem to have possibly missed out on a large part of the rally so far, at least judging by incremental flows in debt mf schemes. Some scepticism till remains with many contemplating if the rally is done or there could be further drop in yields. In our view there is still scope in fixed income market, which may once again positively surprise the investors.
