NFO Nest - April 2008

NFO Nest

The resurrection of the NFO market is definitely on the cards, hand in hand with the bounce back in the stock market (so it seems!).

The following funds find their place in the NFO nest in April, 2008.

ICICI Prudential Focused Equity Fund Opens: 8 April, 2008 Closes: 7 May, 2008

ICICI Prudential Focused Equity Fund is an open-ended fund that aims to maximise long-term capital appreciation by investing in equity and equity-related securities of about 20 companies. The fund’s stock picking universe comprises top 200 companies in terms of market capitalisation, without any sector bias, from the companies listed on the National Stock Exchange. The fund may also invest in depository receipts including American Depository Receipts (ADRs) and Global Depository Receipts (GDRs), debt securities convertible into common shares, preference shares and warrants.The fund will focus on the potential to generate alpha from being over weight on large cap, high conviction picks after through groundwork.

AIG World Gold Fund Opens: 15 April, 2008 Closes: 14 May, 2008

AIG World Gold Fund is an open-ended fund of funds scheme, that will invest in companies engaged in extracting, processing and marketing gold, through an international fund. The primary investment objective of the scheme is to provide long-term capital appreciation by a minimum investment of 80 per cent in units of AIG PB Equity Fund Gold based in Zurich.The maximum exposure in this fund or other similar overseas fund can be up to 100 per cent.The scheme may also invest 0-20 per cent of its corpus in debt and money market securities or units of debt/liquid schemes of domestic mutual funds. When gold prices rise, the profitability of gold companies tend to increase more than proportionately, thereby, providing long-term capital appreciation as stocks of gold companies have the potential to outperform gold prices by a significant margin over the long run. For the Indian investors, in addition to benefiting from the ongoing gold run, investing in an international fund will also help them fetch the benefits of diversification. Financial Times Gold Mines Total- Price Index, in USD is the benchmark of AIG PB Equity Fund Gold. The above translated to INR using the RBI Reference Rate will be the benchmark of AIG World Gold Fund.

Sundaram BNP Paribas Financial Services Opportunities Fund
Opens:17 April, 2008 Closes:14 May, 2008

Sundaram BNP Paribas Financial Services Opportunities Fund is a thematic fund which will invest substantially in the BFSI sector. Around 65-100 per cent of the assets will be invested in equity instruments relevant to the theme (PSU banks, private sector banks and other verticals of business like financial services companies) (upto 35% could be in global companies in similar sector), and 0-35 per cent of the corpus will be invested outside the theme. Due to growing aspiration levels among young Indians who constitute 70 per cent of the population and are multiplying their earnings level, BFSI sector is anticipated to grow. There is huge potential in this sector in India as it has a long way to go in comparison to other economies like US, UK. The fund is benchmarked to CNX Bank Index.

Sundaram BNP Paribas Entertainment Opportunities Fund
Opens:24 April, 2008 Closes:20 May, 2008

Sundaram BNP Paribas Entertainment Opportunities Fund will initially invest in some niche media companies. It will invest in stocks of media houses, broadcasters, multiplexes, content providers, mobile & web-based services, convergence players, leisure and emerging entertainment business. The asset allocation pattern will be similar to its financial services counterpart.The scheme will be benchmarked to S&P CNX Media and Entertainment Index.

Standard Chartered Premier Equity Fund (open for subscription from Apr. 15, 2008)

Standard Chartered Mutual Fund announced that Standard Chartered Premier Equity Fund shall be available for subscription at the applicable NAV. The subscription opening is in line with the scheme offer document feature stating that the scheme would be open for subscription during periods when the fund manger feels that the stocks are reasonably valued. The fund will close subscription, once it collects the predetermined manageable corpus.

Tata Natural Resources Fund, JP Morgan India Active Bond Fund, HSBC Equity Linked Fund, ABN AMRO Infrastructure Fund, UTI-Global Emerging Market Fund, ING Latin America Equity Fund, Bharti AXA Equity Fund, Bharti AXA Treasury Plus, Birla Sun Life Enhanced Arbitrage Fund, Birla Sun Life 130-30 Fund and Mirae Asset Interval Fund are expected to be launched in the coming months.