NFO NEST
February 2012

Dearth of Equity NFOs

The year 2011 saw just 10 equity NFOs being launched with a total inflow of Rs 612 crore whereas 2010 saw 23 NFOs being launched bringing in Rs 4,659 crore. Tata Retirement Savings Fund-Moderate Plan and Tata Retirement Savings Fund-Progressive Plan, could garner just Rs10 crore of investment. Peerless Equity Fund and Edelweiss Select Midcap Fund could garner Rs 24 crore, and Rs 6 crore, respectively. A rather poor performance compared to Union KBC Equity Fund, which collected Rs 167 crore of investments in June 2011, one of the highest inflows during 2011.

In line with the bleak scenario for equity NFOs in 2011, the February 2012 NFO NEST unveils just two NFOs of which only one is an ELSS fund that figured in the January 2012 NFONEST also. FMPs continue to rule the roost.

ICICI Prudential Capital Protection-oriented Fund II – Series 7
Opens: February 14, 2012
Closes: February 27, 2012

ICICI Prudential Capital Protection Oriented Fund –II –Series 7 (24 Months Plan) is a close ended Capital Protection Oriented Fund. The objective of investment in the Fund is to try to protect capital by investing a portion of the portfolio in good quality debt securities and money market instruments (88%–100%) and also to provide capital appreciation by investing the balance in equity and equity related securities (0% – 12%). The performance of the fund will be benchmarked against CRISIL MIP Blended Index. Chaitanya Pande and Rajat Chandak will be the Fund Manager(s) of the fund. The former will take care of debt investment and the latter of equity investment.

SBI Tax Advantage Fund – Series II
Opens: December 22, 2011
Closes: March 21, 2012

SBI Mutual Fund has launched SBI Tax Advantage Fund-Series-II, a 10 year close ended Equity Linked Savings Scheme. The investment objective of the fund is to generate capital appreciation over a period of ten years by investing predominantly in equity and equity-related instruments of companies across large, mid and small market capitalization, along with income tax benefit. The fund will allocate 80-100% of assets in equity and equity related instruments. The fund shall also invest up to 20% in debt and money market securities with low to medium risk profile. The performance of the fund will be standardized against BSE 100 Index and Jayesh Shroff will be the Fund Manager.

Canara Robeco Multicap Fund, HSBC China Consumer Opportunities Fund, Goldman Sachs India Equity Fund, ICICI Prudential Lakshya Fund, Indiabulls Short term Fund, Axis Life Plan, L& T Prudence Fund, Birla Sunlife Capital Protection oriented Fund Series 9, and IIFL Gold Exchange Traded Fund are expected to be launched in the coming months.