EFFECTIVENESS OF FACTORS INFLUENCING INVESTOR’S BEHAVIOR TOWARDS MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENTS – A STUDY FROM RAYALASEEMA REGION OF ANDHRA PRADESH STATE

In India, an individual investor generally invests their money in bank deposits, which do not offer a hedge against inflation and often have negative real returns due to inflation. The last few years have been very significant for the Indian mutual fund industry in terms of expansion and avenue for investments. But still, mutual funds investments have not been a favorable investment options as compared to other investment options. Thus, it is a cause of concern to the financial market and portfolio managers. This calls for better understanding of the investment behavioral patterns of mutual funds investors. A Mutual Fund is an investment medium that pools funds from various investors and invests the funds in stocks, bonds, short-term money-market instruments, other securities or assets or some combination of these investments. The primary goal behind investment in mutual fund is to earn goods return with comparatively low risk. The main objective of the study is to examine the investor's behavior towards mutual fund investment. This research investigates Investment Behavior of selected sample drawn from Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh State to find out factors that influence investors' choice of mutual funds. A sample of 150 individual investors has been selected for this purpose. Statistical tools like Percentage Analysis, Chi-Square Test and ANOVA Technique were used to analysis the collected data.