As 2015 comes to a dawn let’s do a quick analysis over how this year was in terms of investment and taxation. We will try to list all the big changes in taxation and a brief summary on how asset classes performed during this year. Lets start with changes in income tax rules
- Govt declared Rs 50,000 additional deduction under section 80CCD. So now you can save up to 50,000 Rs in NPS and claim tax benefit on this income.
- Govt doubled transport allowance amount to Rs 1600 Per month from earlier 800 Per month
There were several other minor changes in Tax codes but those were minor ones.
Now coming to various asset class and their performance in past year
Equities: 2015 was supposed to be one big year for equities after euphoric 2014 when SENSEX returns were massive 40%. 2015 was supposed to be an year when corporate earnings will pick up after somber of 2 years, but nothing like that happened actually and equities suffered. This year Sensex and Nifty started year at 27,900 and 8,400 levels and grew 5% in Jan to levels of 29,500 and 8900 respectively before bears became dominant and remain rangebound for whole year. Both the indexes are ending the year down about 6-7%. There were few bright spots in between large disappointments with midcaps giving positive returns of about 6-7%. Overall 2015 have been a disappointing year as far as Indian equities are concerned
Debt: As RBI reduced interest rates debt instrument yield came down and hence prices increased. Overall return of 8%-8.5% were best return available during the year as equities faltered and Gold, reality etc failed to pick up.
Gold: Gold (and all other commodities) remained depressed during 2015. It means Gold have been depressed since last 3 years and there is no revival in sight. But Gold saw some action in terms of some new and very exciting schemes from Govt. More details here.
Real Estate: Real Estate too remained depressed in 2015 with some minor exception. It have also been a 3-4 year phase of consolidation and full scale revival will still take time. Though as credible data is unavailable making sweeping recommendation about this market is difficult but some money have been made in certain pockets but overall market have been subdued.
Overall 2015 was not that good year as far as returns are concerned but it provided a good consolidation which will yield to better results in years ahead
