My current favorite mutual funds are
SBI Magnum Comma fund - one year returns= 77%
JM Emerging Leaders fund - one year returns= 83%
JM Financial Services Sector fund - one year returns= 99%
Fidelity Tax Advantage fund - one year returns= 55%(this is an equity linked saving scheme and you can claim tax benefit by investing in this fund).
There are host of other good funds, but the ones mentioned above has comparatively low NAV
Ideally one should invest in a Systematic Investment Plan(SIP) mode, which enables investing as low as Rs. 500 per month.
Tips on investing and managing mutual funds:
Track your fund growth and check your fund’s NAV atleast once a week .
If you are young, you could be aggressive and invest in equity funds since India has a phenomenal growth potential in many sectors like, banking, manufacturing, Telecom, FMCG, etc.
If you find a fund in your portfolio has not moved up much in 6 months, you could sell it, since after 6 months exit load(of about 2%) will not be applicable.
It’s better to invest in existing funds rather than in new funds(NFOs). The existing fund will have info on fund manager, fund portfolio( organisations that the fund has invested in), percentage growth, etc.