2016 was a year to remember!
Globally, it could be named as the Year of Brexit and Trump. In India, the Year of Demonetization and GST is more apt.
While India saw some high profiled visits {Tim Cook of Apple, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Travis Kalanick of Uber, Masayoshi Son of Softbank, Sachin Bansal of Flipkart, and of course Prince William and Kate Middleton}, the world lost many celebrities: David Bowie, George Michael, Prince, Nancy Reagan, Mohamed Ali, Fidel Castro, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Gene Wilder come to mind.
Cyrus Mistry was ousted from the Tata group and the debacle continues. P V Sindhu and Sakshi Malik made India proud at the Olympics. Iron Sharmila broke her fast. Twinkle Khanna created ripples on the Koffee with Karan show with her retort to the question on one thing Akshay has that none of the Khans do. Prithika Yashini took over as the nation’s first transgender sub-inspector of police.
While the world’s tiger population has gone up, wild life enthusiasts noted with despair that India lost 98 tigers, according to the National Tiger Conservation Authority, up from 78 in 2015.
Low-budget travelers in the U.S. should be thrilled with the new class below economy known as “basic economy” or “last class”. The Solar Impulse 2 piloted by Swiss pioneer Bertrand Piccard created history by completing the first around-the-world flight without the use of fossil fuels.
Pokemon and Panama Papers also got their fair share of attention. The terrorist attacks in Europe increased.
The Economist picked Colombia as the Country of the Year for making peace. (The conflict between Colombia’s government and the Marxist insurgents of the FARC lasted for half a century and claimed thousands and thousands of lives.) TIME named Donald Trump as Person of the Year.
Coming to markets…..
January 7 was the shortest trading day in China. Trading was curtailed just 30 minutes after the market opened and the Shanghai Composite Index closed down 7%.
On February 11, oil plummeted to $26.21/barrel.
The Federal Reserve left rates unchanged in March, June and September.
On October 7, the pound fell 6% in 2 minutes - an automated algorithm malfunction was among the possible causes.
The Sensex delivered a return of 1.95% (closed 26,190 on January 1 and 26,626 on December 30). Sunil Damania, Executive Editor- Investments at Business India, tweeted that the Sensex has not given a negative return 2 years in a row since 2001. He expects “big returns” in 2017.
How did equity funds fare?
Here’s a look at the best funds of 2016. Do note, this is just a listing and NOT a recommendation. (Source: Morningstar Direct)
We looked at the Growth schemes (not dividend) of Regular plans (not direct). The 1-year returns are as on December 31, 2016.
The Best Small and Mid-Cap Funds
The Best Large-Cap Funds
The Best Flexi-Cap Funds
The Best ELSS
