ICICI Prudential Banking and Financial Services Fund NFO

News-

The new fund offer (NFO) opens July 9 and closes on August 7.

ICICI Prudential Banking and Financial Services Fund is an open-ended equity scheme.

The fund aims to maximise long-term capital appreciation by investing 70-100% in equity and equity-related securities of companies engaged in banking and financial services and 0-30% in debt instruments.

Views-

Those who are looking for an exposure to BFSI sector can apply a small amount.

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Commodity Stocks Fund - NFO update

News-

Mirae Asset Global Commodity Stocks Fund - Growth
Offer Open -Offer Close
Jun 24, 2008-Jul 23, 2008,Open Ended,Equity
Scheme Objective
The investment objective of the scheme is to generate long term capital appreciation through an actively managed portfolio investing in equity and equity related securities of companies that are engaged in commodity and commodities related sectors/sub sectors/industries, with at least 65% of the corpus invested overseas in Asia Pacific and Emerging Markets. There is no assurance or guarantee of returns

Minimum Investment-Rs. 5000
Incremental Investment-Rs. 1
SIP allowed- yes
NRI Investment -yes

Views-

Seems to be a novel idea. Since less than 65% invested in Indian equity, this would be treated as a debt fund for taxation purpose. Those who are extremely bullish on commodities can try out this fund. For new investors, wait and watch would be definitely better .

Time only will tell if CASH is king or COMMODITY is the king.!!

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Lotus India Banking Fund -NFO

News-
Fund category -Equity - Diversified
Scheme plan-Growth, Dividend
Scheme type-Open Ended
Launch date-May 19, 2008
Fund manager-Mr. Tridib Pathak
Initial Price-Rs 10
Min investment-Rs 5,000
Entry load-2.25 % Exit load-1

Objective-The investment objective of the Scheme is to generate long-term capital growth from a portfolio of equity and equity-related securities of companies engaged in the business of banking and financial services.

Views-

Investors can look into proven funds available around the same theme. Banking is a high risk return sector as there are a lot of uncertainties at this point of time.

Reliance Banking ETF (Exchange Traded Fund).

News:-The fund will track the CNX Bank Index, which has 12 liquid and large Indian banking stocks.The scheme's asset allocation will be 90 per cent in the equities of its Index and rest 10 per cent in other equities or debt instruments.

Scheme Details:Issue Opening Date : May 12, 2008Issue Closing Date : May 30, 2008Fund Category : Exchange Traded Fund Fund Type : Open-end, Exchange traded Benchmark : CNX Bank Index Cost : The fund has 2.25per cent entry load during NFO. Investors will incur brokerage on sale and purchase after listing of the ETF.Minimum Investment : Rs 5000(During the NFO)

Views :-

Sectoral fund. New investors can avoid. Existing investors who want to add banking flavour to their portfolio can considering investing a small portion of their portfolio. Comparable ETF's that exist are Benchmark BEES, PSU bank BEES and Kotak Bank ETF.

NFO : ICICI Prudential Focused Equity Fund

NEWS -The latest offering from the ICICI Prudential is an open-ended diversified equity fund - the “ICICI Prudential Focused Equity Fund”.The fund’s investment strategy will be to invest in 20 large cap companies from the top 200 stocks listed on the NSE on the basis of market capitalisation. If the total assets in this fund crosses Rs.1000 crore then more than top 20 large companies would be added to the portfolio.
Scheme Details
Issue Opening Date : April 8, 2008
Issue Closing Date : May 7, 2008
Mutual Fund Family : ICICI Prudential Asset Mgmt.Co. Ltd Fund Class : Equity Diversified
Fund Type : Open-Ended
Investment Plan : Growth
Fund Manager : Prashant Kothari
Entry Load : 2.25 %
Exit Load : 1.00 %
Benchmark : S&P CNX Nifty
Minimum Investment : Regular Plan - Rs. 5000, Institutional Plan - Rs. 10 crore.
The fund has a straight forward strategy to invest in the top 20 companies from the NSE index. The fund is likely to deliver returns and behave like a large-cap index like Sensex and Nifty. The fund might be a reasonable choice for its predictable strategy and relative safety of the mega-cap stocks. This fund could be a worthy consideration for NFO fans, seeking an opportunistic bet on the market turnaround which can especially benefit this fund.

Views - The fund theme looks similar to Sundaram select focus , JM core 11 and other such funds which focus on a smaller number of stocks for investment. Since, the focus is on only 20 stocks there is a high risk- return probability. The focus is going to be on large caps. So, the risk is reduced to some extent.

SIP in a focus fund would be a better strategy than a bulk investment in this volatile phase. If you are not too keen on ICICI, you can choose from a proven focus fund to invest. Prefer direct investment in MF, as this will avoid incurring entry load on your investment.

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Thematic funds from Sundaram

News-Sundaram BNP Paribas MF launches Select Thematic Funds Entertainment Opportunities (On Apr 16 , 2008)

Sundaram Mutual Fund launches another open ended thematic equity fund, Sundaram BNP Paribas Select Select Thematic Funds Entertainment Opportunities. The investment objective of the scheme would be to achieve long term capital appreciation by investing primarily in the equity and equity related instruments of companies that focus on opportunities in the entertainment business. As a thematic fund, the portfolio will be more diversified than a sector fund and may not be as diversified as a typical equity fund. The fund will invest 65-100% in equity and equity related instruments in the targeted sector/theme. It will have a 0-35% investment in equity and equity-related instruments other than the targeted sector/theme. There will be 0-15% investment in fixed income and money market instruments. Equity investments may also include overseas securities, up to a maximum of 35% of net assets of the scheme. The NFO is open for subscription from 24 April, 2008 and closes on 20 May, 2008.

Sundaram BNP Paribus MF launches Select Thematic Funds Financial Services Opportunities (On Apr 16 , 2008)
Sundaram Mutual Fund launches an open ended sectoral equity fund, Sundaram BNP Paribas Select Thematic Funds Financial Services Opportunities. The investment objective of the scheme is to seek long-term capital appreciation by investing predominantly in equity and equity related securities of Indian companies engaged in the banking and financial services. The fund will invest 65-100% in equity and equity related instruments predominantly Indian companies relevant to the theme. It will have a 0-35% investment in equity and equity-related instruments outside of the theme. There will be 0-15% investment in fixed income and money market instruments. Equity investments may also include overseas securities, up to a maximum of 35% of net assets of the scheme. The new fund offer is open for subscription from 17 April 2008, and closes on 14 May 2008. source- MFI site

Views- Financial services and Entertainment are potential growth sectors in India . Those who have the adequate exposure to diversified equity portfolio can allocate a small portion to these funds. If you are a new investor, better to start with some proven diversified equity funds.

AIG Investments launches the AIG World Gold Fund (On Apr 7 , 2008)

News - Source MFI-AIG Investments has announced the launch of the AIG World Gold Fund – an open ended Fund of Funds Scheme investing in companies engaged in the extracting, processing and marketing of gold through an international fund. The primary investment objective of the Scheme is to provide long term capital appreciation by investing predominantly in units of AIG PB Equity Fund Gold based in Zurich. The New Fund Offer will be open for purchase from 15 April - 14 May 2008 and will re-open for ongoing purchase/redemption no later than 12 June 2008. The scheme will offer both the options: Growth and Dividend with Dividend Payout and Dividend Reinvestment facilities. The Scheme may, at the discretion of the Investment Manager, also invest in the units of other similar overseas mutual fund schemes. The Scheme may also invest a certain portion of its corpus in debt and money market securities and/or units of debt/liquid schemes of Mutual Funds, in order to meet liquidity requirements from time to time. The scheme will invest 80% – 100% in units of AIG PB Equity Gold Fund and other similar overseas fund and the rest 0% - 20% in debt and money market securities and units of debt and liquid schemes of domestic mutual funds.

Views- This fund seems similar to DSPML world gold fund in concept. This would be a good option for those who want to diversify into Gold. This fund would be considered as a DEBT fund for taxation of dividends and redemptions.

DSP Merrill Lynch Natural Resources and New Energy Fund

News~
DSP Merrill Lynch Fund Managers has announced the launch of its open ended equity growth scheme, DSP Merrill Lynch Natural Resources and New Energy Fund. The scheme aims to invest a minimum of 65 per cent in the domestic companies which belong to the natural resources, energy and new energy sectors and up to 35 per cent of its funds will be invested in two international funds i.e. New Energy Fund and World Energy Fund. The natural resource sector will include base metals, other minerals and commodities, water and agriculture, and energy including oil, gas and coal. The new energy sector includes renewable energy and alternative fuels. The new fund offer will open for subscription on 3rd March, 2008 and close on 27th March, 2008. The scheme has two plans i.e. Regular and Institutional Plan. Under the regular plan the minimum investment amount is Rs. 5,000 and in multiple of Re 1 thereafter, and under the institutional plan the minimum investment amount is Rs. 5 crores and in multiple of Re. 1 thereafter. The scheme has both the options, growth and dividend with dividend payout and dividend reinvest sub-options. The scheme will charge an entry load of 2.25% if the investment amount is less than 5 crores, and an exit loads of 1% will be charged if the holding period is less than 6 months and 0.50 per cent if the holding period is less than 1 year.

Views~

Those who are looking to diversify into Energy and Natural Resource theme canapply. 35% of funds can be invested in world energy fund. Investors will get a diversification by this without loosing tax advantage on equity ( as 65% is planned to be invested in Indian equity)

NFO

Scheme Category Open Date Close Date Offer Price (Rs) Min Investment (Rs)
Mirae Asset India Opportunities Fund
Equity - Diversified
Feb 11, 08
Mar 10, 08
10
5,000
Morgan Stanley A.C.E. Fund
Equity - Diversified
Feb 11, 08
Mar 10, 08
10
5,000

Birla Sun Life Pure Value Fund
Equity - Diversified
Jan 17, 08
Mar 01, 08
10
5,000

Open Equity and ELSS NFOs

Scheme Category Open Date Close Date Offer Price (Rs) Min Investment (Rs)


HSBC Small Cap Fund
Equity - Diversified
Jan 19, 08
Mar 03, 08
10
10,000

HSBC Emerging Markets Fund
Equity - Diversified
Jan 28, 08
Feb 25, 08
10
10,000

Lotus India AGILE Tax Fund
Equity - ELSS
Nov 15, 07
Feb 15, 08
10
500

SBI Tax Advantage Fund - Series 1
Equity - ELSS
Dec 03, 07
Mar 03, 08
10
500

Reliance Equity Linked Saving Fund - Series 1
Equity - Diversified
Dec 18, 07
Mar 17, 08
10
500

UTI Long Term Advantage Fund - Series II
Equity - ELSS
Dec 19, 07
Mar 19, 08
10
500

JM Tax Gain Fund
Equity - ELSS
Dec 24, 07
Mar 25, 08
10
500


Lotus India Mid N Small Cap Fund
Equity - Diversified
Jan 07, 08
Feb 19, 08
10
5,000


HDFC Infrastructure Fund
Equity - Diversified
Jan 08, 08
Feb 21, 08
10
5,000

LIC MF Infrastructure Fund
Equity - Diversified
Feb 04, 08
Mar 04, 08
10
5,000


ICICI Prudential Fusion Fund Series III
Equity - Diversified
Jan 08, 08
Feb 21, 08
10
5,000

Standard Chartered Small and Midcap Equity Fund
Equity - Diversified
Jan 09, 08
Feb 15, 08
10
5,000

Another good news from SEBI

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Wednesday prohibited mutual funds from charging and amortising initial issue expenses on closed-ended schemes.

Before the SEBI move, the mutual fund houses were allowed to amortise issue expenses of up to 6 per cent of the amount collected when a new scheme was launched.

So if a scheme raised Rs 1,000 crore it was allowed to recover up to Rs 60 crore as initial issue expenses from the investors investing in the scheme.

Initial issue expenses include expenses such as sales, marketing and advertising, printing and mailing, broker/agent’s commission, bank charges etc, that need to be incurred in order to get an investor to invest in a new scheme.

With this leeway of 6 per cent, some recent closed-ended fund launches, even paid commissions of as high as 5.5-5.75 per cent of the amount invested to the distributors.

The distributors, in turn, passed on part of this commission as kickback to the big investors.

A set back for distributors and investors who used to get kick-backs. But ultimatley this will help small investors by reducing cost of investing to a great extent.

Earlier AMCs came up with lot of close-ended NFOs to use this loop -hole. Now SEBI has acted wisely although a bit late.

New ELSS NFOs

Scheme,Category,Open Date,Close Date,Offer Price (Rs)
Lotus India AGILE Tax Fund
Equity - ELSS
Nov 15, 07
Feb 15, 08
10
SBI Tax Advantage Fund - Series 1
Equity - ELSS
Dec 03, 07
Mar 03, 08
10

Views- You can prefer funds like Magnum tax gain, Sundaram tax saver, HDFC Tax Saver or Principal tax saver fund for your tax investments.

NFO JM Tax Gain Fund

.Nfo Closes On 25th March 2008
An Open Ended Equity Linked Saving Scheme
Minimum Application Amount: 500/-
Asset Allocation: Equity -80%-100%,Debt -0%-20%
Entry Load: 2.25%
Exit Load: Nil
Benchmark: BSE 500 Index

Views- This is for those who are hardcore fans of JM and it's star investor. we suggest investing in existing proven tax funds

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Standard Chartered Small & Midcap Equity Fund -NFO

News-
Issue Open 09-Jan-2008
Issue Close 15-Feb-2008
Scheme Objective
Standard Chartered Small & Midcap Equity (SME) Fund, is a close-ended equity scheme with no assured returns. The investment objective of the Scheme is to seek to generate capital appreciation from a diversified portfolio of equity and equity related instruments.
Equity Diversified
Close-Ended
Entry Load 0.00 %
Exit Load 0.00 %
Exit load: For redemptions or switch out during the specified redemption period, till the maturity of the scheme, the unit holder will have to pay the balance proportionate unamortized initial issue expenses applicable to their investments.

Views-

Stan chart have proven themselves in Premier equity fund. But they don't have a long term track record across market cycles. Small and mid cap funds can give great returns over long term. Small and Mid caps are available at cheap valuations after the recent market downturn. Investors can take up existing small and mid cap funds from market.
This is a close ended fund.so, higher issue expenses can be amortised.Can be a disadvantage to investors. This funds may be for the hardcore stan. chart fans!.

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HDFC joins the infrastructure NFO race

NEWS-

HDFC Mutual Fund has launched HDFC Infrastructure Fund. The NFO period for the Scheme is Jan 08 – Feb 21, 2008.

The investment objective of the Scheme is to seek long term capital appreciation by investing predominantly in equity and equity related securities of companies engaged in or expected to benefit from the growth and development of infrastructure.

Views-

This is a closed ended fund and would be converted to open-ended later on. So, comes with a baggage of excess expense load chargeable to close ended funds. HDFC is no doubt a strong fund house. But investors better look for SIP in open-ended infrastructure schemes

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One more infrastructure NFO

There is one another infrastructure fund (NFO) in the offing (2008).

New:-AIG Mutual Fund has launched an open-ended equity scheme AIG Infrastructure and Economic Reform Fund. The investment objective of the scheme is to generate long-term capital appreciation from a diversified portfolio.

The scheme would charge an entry load of 2.25 per cent for investment below Rs 5 crore.
The minimum one-time investment under the regular plan is Rs 5,000 and in multiplies of Re 1 thereafter

Views:- Note , the entry load would not be applicable if you apply directly to the fund house.(know more..No entry load for direct investment- what does it mean for you? ).

It's better to go in for an SIP in a proven infrastructure fund. AIG is relatively a new fund house and we can better wait to see how it performs in the Indian market.

NFO - New Fund Offer

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Reliance Natural Resources Fund

News:-
Type : Open-Ended
Investment Objective :
The primary investment objective of the scheme is to seek to generate capital appreciation & provide long-term growth opportunities by investing in companies principally engaged in the discovery , development, production, or distribution of natural resources and the secondary objective is to generate consistent returns by investing in debt and money market securities.
Asset Allocation :
Equity and Equity related Securities of companies principally engaged in the discovery, development, production, or distribution of natural resources in - 65% to 100% , Domestic Companies - 65% to 100% , Foreign securities as permitted by SEBI/RBI fromo time to time - 0% to 35% , Debt and Money market securities (including investments in securitised debt)- 0% to 35%
Issue Opens On :
1 Jan 2008
Issue Closes On :
30 Jan 2008
Offer Price :
Rs. 10 per unit plus applicable load during NFO
Minimum Investment Amount :
Rs. 5000.00
Plan Options :
Dividend reinvestment, Dividend payment, Growth
Entry Load :
2.25
Exit Load:
NIL

Views:-

The sector chosen looks very attractive. If you want to diversify into Natural resources, you can opt for this fund. Reliance already has a proven power sector fund. Now the fund house has broadened this power aspect to whole of natural resources.

Given the track record of this fund house, the Fund may end up mopping up huge money...When you apply you may apply directly to the fund house to avoid the entry load.

NFO talk

NEWS :- Birla Sun Life Special Situations Fund:

Birla Sun Life Special Situations Fund is an open end equity fund that will invest in contrarian picks or stocks where there is potential for unlocking of value due to a corporate action.

Return/risk profile: While the return potential it carries is high, the fund’s risk profile will be also high. The fund is suited only to investors who own other equity products in their portfolio. Stocks in contrarian or special situations can carry significant downside risk if the expected event or unlocking of value doesn’t materialise

Fund Manager: A. Balasubramanian
Details: New fund offer closes on January 15. The benchmark is BSE 200. Minimum investment is Rs 5,000

Views:-

Investors can invest a small portion of their funds for diversification, if they feel the theme is interesting. Risk - return proportion is high. Birla Sunlife is having a good number of performing equity funds. Investors who don't have Birla funds may add this to their kitty for diversification .

Running behind a theme

A thematic fund has become a fashion nowadays. We see fund houses coming up with a lot of thematic NFOs. 'Infrastructure' is very hot among them.

Nothing wrong in having a part of portfolio in thematic funds. But we need to understand such 'concepts' are seasonal and may tumble once the season is down. The most important thing is that season never ends with a notice. (like IT sector suddenly seeming unattractive and most IT sector funds going down all of a sudden)

If you are a long term investor, you should have thematic funds just to add flavor and not as your main holding. For new investors its always better to avoid thematic funds as far as possible.

NFO= New fund offer from Mutual funds.

Chocolate Coated Nuts

Small fund - NFO

"DBS Chola Mutual Fund has announced the launch of its three-year close-ended fund DBS Chola Small Cap Fund. The fund will invest in equity and equity related instruments of companies with small market capitalisation. The offer is open from November 20 to December 20. The minimum application amount is Rs. 5,000."- news

our views-Lot of proven mid caps available in the market. Pure small cap oriented funds are very few ( DSPML Small companies fund and Sundaram BNP paribas select small cap). Investors who have a big time horizon and want to have smaller companies in their portfolio can look at this fund.