Monday, April 19, 2010

NFO NEST
April 2010

Variety adds spice to the NFO curry

The variety that has taken off from the NFONEST in April 2010 and those awaiting launch add spice to the bleak scenario that has been prevailing in the Indian mutual fund NFO market for quite sometime…

DWS Global Agribusiness Offshore Fund

Opens: April 6, 2010
Closes: April 30, 2010


Deutsche Mutual Fund has launched DWS Global Agribusiness Offshore Fund, an open-end foreign fund of fund. The scheme will initially invest predominantly in the units of DWS Invest Global Agribusiness Fund, domiciled in Luxembourg or similar mutual funds at the discretion of the Investment Manager. DWS Invest Global Agribusiness Fund has invested in companies such as Swiss-based life science and chemicals company Syngenta AG, food and diary producer Nestle, US-based Monsanto Co., US supermarket chains SUPERVALU Inc. and Safeway, and Ukrainian agriculture products company Kernel Holdings. It also has stake in American agricultural products company Bunge. The fund's maximum exposure in agri-business companies in the US is 30.8 per cent. Its exposure to India is a mere one per cent. The fund offers you an exposure to invest in a wide bouquet of opportunities related to ‘food’— a basic necessity. The agri-business space is a niche area which is steadily seeing growing investor demand. DWS will be looking at tapping this segment to take advantage of this surge in investor demand in the agri-business sector. In 2009, for example, there was an increase in sugar prices. As a result, the stocks of companies in this sector saw a surge in prices. There are, however, certain risk factors associated with the agri-business segment. Global agriculture is vulnerable to adverse effects of climate change. The WTO trade negotiations on agriculture are inconclusive. There are also renewed concerns regarding agricultural bio-technology. On the other hand, rising incomes, especially in Asia, and demographic pressure are sure to boost demand for agricultural commodities and in turn have a positive impact on agri-business stocks. There is another fund on the same theme - Birla Sun Life Global Agri fund, an open ended fund which also invests in global agri companies besides Indian stocks.

IDFC Nifty Fund

Opens: April 12, 2010
Closes: April 23, 2010


IDFC Mutual Fund has launched the IDFC Nifty Fund. It is an open ended index-linked Equity fund. This is the first index fund to be launched by the fund house. This is the 15th index fund in the mutual fund industry which tracks the Nifty while eight others track the BSE Sensex. The investment objective of the scheme is to replicate the S&P CNX Nifty index by investing in securities of the S&P CNX Nifty Index in the same proportion. The scheme will allocate 90% to 100% of assets in securities (including derivatives) forming a part of the S&P CNX Nifty Index with high risk profile. It would further allocate up to 10% of assets in debt & money market instruments with low to medium risk profile.

Religare MIP and Religare MIP Plus

Opens: April 12, 2010
Closes: May 11, 2010

Religare Mutual Fund has announced the launch of two funds -- Religare MIP and Religare Monthly Income Plan (MIP) Plus. While Religare MIP is a traditional MIP, Religare MIP Plus is the first such MIP in the mutual fund industry that will allocate its assets to Gold Exchange Traded Funds, apart from investing in fixed income and equities.

Religare Monthly Income Plan

Religare Monthly Income Plan is the traditional MIP product offering that seeks to generate regular income through a portfolio of predominantly high quality fixed income securities and a small exposure to equity and equity related instruments. The fund will invest 75%-100% in debt and money market instruments and 0-25% in equity and equity related instruments. The fund is benchmarked against CRISIL MIP Blended Index.

Religare Monthly Income Plan (MIP) Plus

Religare MIP Plus is a departure from the traditional breed of monthly income plans, which combine fixed income and equities. This innovative fund introduces one additional asset class i.e. Gold (through Gold ETFs), with the aim of improving diversification and enhancing performance. Gold has a low or negative correlation with most other asset classes, which means that its price changes are independent of price changes in other asset classes like equities and debt. Adding gold provides the fund manager with the flexibility to tilt the allocation made between asset classes so that the fund is positioned to take full advantage of prevailing market conditions. The fund could allocate up to 90 per cent of its assets in debt or money market instruments, up to 35 per cent in gold ETFs and also invest up to 25 per cent in equities. The fund manager will adopt the bottom up investment approach to select stocks. The fund seeks to generate regular income through a portfolio of fixed income securities, Gold ETFs, equity, and equity related instruments. Though not an MIP, UTI Wealth Builder Series II Retail-G is the only other fund which allocates its assets to debt, equity, and gold ETFs. Religare MIP Plus is benchmarked against CRISIL MIP Blended Index and Price of Gold.

Kotak Credit Opportunities Fund

Opens: April 12, 2010
Closes: April 30, 2010

Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund launched Kotak Credit Opportunities Fund, an open-ended debt scheme that aims to capture opportunities across the yield curve and issuers with marginally higher level of risk. The scheme would be flexible to take higher exposure to a particular security based on the risk-reward ratio. The scheme will allocate 35% to 100% of assets in debt, money market instruments, and government securities with maturity up to 1 year with low risk profile. It would further allocate up to 65% of assets in debt, money market instruments, and government securities with maturity greater than 1 year with low to medium risk profile. Debt instruments shall be deemed to include securitized debts (excluding foreign securitized debt) and investment in securitized debts maybe up to 75% of the net assets of the scheme. The scheme is positioned between short term funds and duration funds like gilt and bond. The idea of the strategy is to play the steepness of the yield curve and at the same time not have too much volatility a duration fund would usually have. The benchmark index for this fund is CRISIL Short Term Bond Index.

Edelweiss Super Select Equity Fund, Quantum Gold FoF, Reliance Gold Savings FoF, UTI Master Gold FoF, Taurus Gold-edged MIP, Mirae Asset Indo China Consumption Fund, and Canara Robeco Indigo Fund are expected to be launched in the coming months.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting about the Religare MIP Funds.
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