No-exit load funds change track

In the past two to three months, some equity funds that previously didn't charge any exit load have started levying a penalty if investors sold mutual funds early. While funds with no exit load are not necessarily superior to the ones that have exit load, clearly equity funds are trying to dissuade investors from early redemption after the huge rally in equity markets for the past one year. Let's have a look at these changes, and find out what may be driving fund houses to tweak exit loads or levy them afresh. More than two dozen equity funds have announced exit load charges in the last few months. However, only a few like Reliance Growth Fund and Reliance Vision Fund have actually removed exit loads. A bulk of the exit load announcements have been in roughly two categories. For the last two months some mutual funds have started charging exit loads. Kotak Classic Equity Fund is charging 1 per cent if redeemed or switched within a year and SBI Nifty Index Fund is now charging 0.20 per cent load if units are redeemed within 15 days. Some equity funds have tweaked the time period for the implementat