An unmanaged group of securities whose performance is used as a standard to measure investment performance. Commonly known as a market index. Some well-known benchmarks are the BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty.

 Mutual fund that invests in blue chip stocks. Typically a growth fund.

 A mutual fund whose portfolio consists primarily of corporate, municipal or government bonds. These funds generally emphasize income rather than growth.

 Balanced fund include both equity and debt schemes, with 50-75 per cent in equity and the rest in debt.

 A debt investment with which the investor loans money to an entity (company or government) that borrows the funds for a defined period of time at a specified interest rate.

 A system of evaluating the probability of whether a bond issuer will default. Standard and Poor's Corp. and Moody's Investors Services, among other firms, analyze the financial stability of both corporate and government bond issuers. Ratings range from AAA or Aaa (extremely unlikely to default) to D (currently in default). Bonds rated BBB or below by S&P or Baa or below by Moody's are not considered to be of investment grade. Mutual funds generally restrict their bond purchases to issues of certain quality ratings, which are specified in their prospectuses.