Lotus India Infrastructure Fund

Just like most other AMCs in the recent, Lotus India Mutual Fund also has come out with a three-year close ended equity fund called Lotus India Infrastructure Fund that will focus on Infrastruture as the theme for its investment. This fund would automatically be converted into an open ended fund after the expiry of three years from the date of allotment.

The scheme endeavors to generate long term capital appreciation by investing in a portfolio that is predominantly constituted of equity and equity related instruments of infrastructure companies.

The fund would adopt bottom up approach where the focus would be on specific company rather than on the industry in which that company operates or on the economy as a whole.

Between 65 to 100% of the portfolio allocation will be in equity and equity- linked instruments of companies engaged in infrastructure sector. Debt securities and money market instrument will comprise of 0 to 35% of the portfolio.

Snapshot:
Issue Opens: September 25, 2007
Issue Closes: October 24, 2007
Investment Options: Growth, Dividend Payout and Reinvestment
Minimum Investment: Rs 5000
Face Value: Rs 10
Load: The fund would not charge any entry or exit load. But, on redemption before maturity of the scheme, investors will be charged balance proportionate unamortized issue expenses on the applicable NAV.
Benchmark Index: S&P CNX 500

Birla Sun Life International Equity Fund

Birla AMC has come out with an international equity fund which aims to invest in domestic and international stocks. This scheme is different from the recent launches of the other AMCs which still focus mostly on Asia or SE Asia.

This is an Open-Ended and Equity Diversified Scheme two plans namely Plan A and Plan B

Investment Objective
Plan A: The plan would exclusively invest in international stocks.

Plan B: The plan would invest in a blend of domestic and international stocks. It would have the flexibility to invest in stocks across different market capitalisation.

The international investments for both the plans would aim to create a portfolio that is diversified geographically, to take benefit of low correlation between various countries, and to create a portfolio of high quality - high growth stocks.

The domestic portion of the portfolio would provide a strong base to the scheme and the international portion would aim towards reducing the risk through diversification and contribute to returns.

Asset Allocation
Plan A: Around 90-100 % of investments would be allocated to foreign equity and equity-related instruments. Fixed income securities and money market component in the portfolio would be around 0 - 10 %.

Plan B: Around 90-100 % of investments would be allocated to equity and equity-related instruments out of which 65 to 75% would be in Indian securities and 25 to 35% would be in foreign securities. Fixed income securities and money market component in the portfolio would be around 0 - 10 %.

Fund Opens: September 17, 2007

Fund Closes: October 16, 2007

Face Value: Rs 10

Investment Options: Growth, Dividend Reinvestment, Payout and Sweep Facility

Entry Load: An entry load of 2.50% would be charged for investment upto 5 crores.

Exit Load: An exit load of 1% would be charged for investment less than 5 crores if redeemed within six months from the date of allotment.

Minimum Investment Amount: Rs 5000

Benchmark Index
Plan A: S&P Global 1200

Plan B: It would be benchmarked against a customised benchmark created using BSE 200 to the extent of 65% of portfolio and S&P Global 1200 to the extent of 35% of portfolio

FMP Update

Here are some more launches of FMP that are available in the market at this point of time

Please read the following blogs to get details about what an FMP is and its advantages

1. Why invest in Fixed maturity plans ?

2. Fixed Maturity Plan - FAQ

LICMF Fixed Maturity Plan Series 32
Tenure: 13 Months
Offer open: September 20, 2007
Offer closes: September 27, 2007
Schemes: Growth, Dividend Payout and Reinvestment
Minimum investment: Rs 10000
Cost per unit: Rs 10

DSPML Fixed Term Plan - Series 3H
Tenure: 12 Months
Offer open: September 14, 2007
Offer closes: October 10, 2007
Schemes: Growth and Dividend Reinvestment
Plan: Regular and Institutional
Minimum investment: Rs 25000 (Regular Plan) and Rs 1 crore (Institutional Plan)
Cost per unit: Rs 1000

Birla Sun Life International Equity Fund

Now it is the turn of the Birla AMC to come out with a mutual find that targers international destinations.

This is slightly different from the ones that have been launched by other AMCs as the other funds that have been launched in the recent past still have a significant proprtion of the funds that will be invested in the Indian stock market.

However, this fund has a scheme where a very high propotion of the funds will be invested abroad.

The reason why many of the funds that intend to invest overseas still invest a high proportion in India is to get the tax benefits as defined by the Income Tax rules in India where by tax on long term gains are exmept from tax and the short term gains are taxed at 10% of the gains.

This fund is an Open-End, Equity Diversified Scheme with two types of plans - Plan A and Plan B

Investment Objective
Plan A: The plan would exclusively invest in international stocks.

Plan B: The plan would invest in a blend of domestic and international stocks. It would have the flexibility to invest in stocks across different market capitalisation.

The international investments for both the plans would aim to create a portfolio that is diversified geographically, to take benefit of low correlation between various countries, and to create a portfolio of high quality - high growth stocks.

The domestic portion of the portfolio would provide a strong base to the scheme and the international portion would aim towards reducing the risk through diversification and contribute to returns.

Asset Allocation
Plan A: Around 90-100 % of investments would be allocated to foreign equity and equity-related instruments. Fixed income securities and money market component in the portfolio would be around 0 - 10 %.

Plan B: Around 90-100 % of investments would be allocated to equity and equity-related instruments out of which 65 to 75% would be in Indian securities and 25 to 35% would be in foreign securities. Fixed income securities and money market component in the portfolio would be around 0 - 10 %.

Fund Opens: September 17, 2007
Fund Closes: October 16, 2007
Face Value: Rs 10
Investment Options: Growth, Dividend Reinvestment, Payout and Sweep Facility

Entry Load: An entry load of 2.50% would be charged for investment upto 5 crores.

Exit Load: An exit load of 1% would be charged for investment less than 5 crores if redeemed within six months from the date of allotment.

Minimum Investment Amount: Rs 5000

Benchmark Index
Plan A: S&P Global 1200
Plan B: It would be benchmarked against a customised benchmark created using BSE 200 to the extent of 65% of portfolio and S&P Global 1200 to the extent of 35% of portfolio

Lotus India Overnight Fund

Lotus AMC has launched a new fund called Lotus India Overnight Fund which is an open ended, liquid scheme.

Investment Objective: The fund aims to provide investors with higher level of liquidity and safety. The corpus of the fund would be predominantly deployed in overnight instruments with some allocation to short term securities having maturity upto 91 days. The average portfolio duration will normally be upto 15 days.

Asset Allocation: The fund may invest upto 70% in reverse repo, debt instruments, including floating rate instruments, with overnight maturity/ daily put/call option and upto 30% in debt & money market instruments with residual maturity of upto 91 days.

NFO Opens: September 12, 2007
NFO Closes: September 13, 2007
Face Value: Rs 10

Investment Options: Growth and Dividend Reinvestment

Minimum Investment Amount: Rs 5000

Load: The fund would neither charge an entry load nor an exit load

Benchmark Index: Crisil Liquid Fund Index

Some more Global Funds

More and more fund houses are jumping onto the bandwagon of launching mutual funds that will invest some part of the funds collected abroad

The different funds offered by AMCs under the similar investment style are Principal Global Opportunities, Kotak Global Emerging Market Fund, Sundaram BNP Paribas Global Advantage Fund, ICICI Prudential Indo Asia Equity Fund and DWS Global Thematic Offshore Fund.


Tata Indo Global Infrastructure Fund
This is a three year closed end equity fund which will automatically be converted into an open ended scheme after the expiry of three years from the date of allotment.

The scheme aims to generate long term capital appreciation by investing predominantly in equity and equity related instruments of companies engaged in infrastructure and infrastructure related sectors, which are incorporated or have their area of primary activity, in India and other parts of the world.

The fund mangers will focus on investment opportunities in Asia Pacific Region including India, Europe and Latin America and other growing economies.

The equity component will range between 65% - 85% of the portfolio while 15% - 35% will constitute foreign securities, debt and money market instruments will be in the range of 0% - 35%.

Snapshot:
Issue Opens: September 3, 2007
Issue Closes: October 16, 2007
Investment Options: Growth, Dividend Reinvestment and Payout
Minimum Investment: Rs 10000
Face Value: Rs 10
Benchmark: The benchmark would constitute 65% of BSE Sensex and 35% of MSCI World Index.


ABN AMRO China India Fund

This ian Open-ended fund that endeavors to generate long term capital appreciation by investing in equities of India and China by using top down/bottom up approaches in capturing stock opportunity. It will look for companies that may benefit from the anticipated long-term growth of the China & India economies.

In addition, the fund may also invest a limited proportion of its assets in other international equity and equity related securities.

The fund may invest 65 to 75% of its assets in Indian equity and equity related securities, 25 to 35% of it assets in Chinese equities and upto 10% of its assets in debt & money market instruments.

Snapshot:

Issue Opens: September 3, 2007
issue Closes: October 1, 2007
Face Value: Rs 10
Investment Options: Growth, Dividend Payout and Reinvestment
Entry Load: An entry load of 2.50% would be charged for investment less than 5 crores.
Exit Load: An exit load of 1% is payable if the units are redeemed or switched out within one year from the date of allotment, for investment less than 5 crores. For investments of 5 crores and more but less than 10 crores, an exit load of 0.50% is payable if the units are redeemed or switched out before March 15, 2008.
Minimum Investment Amount: Rs 5000
Benchmark Index: The benchmark will constitute 65% of BSE 200 and 35% of FTSE China International Index

Yet another FMP Update

Here are some more launches of FMP that are available in the market at this point of time

Please read the following blogss to get details about what an FMP is

1. Why invest in Fixed maturity plans ?

2. Fixed Maturity Plan - FAQ

DSPML Fixed Term Plan - Series 3 F
Tenure: 12 months
Offer Open: August 31, 2007
Offer Closes: September 10, 2007
Plan: Regular and Institutional
Schemes: Growth and Dividend Reinvestment
Minimum Investment: Rs 25,000 (for regular plan) and Rs 1 Cr (for institutional plan)
Cost Per Unit: Rs 1000

Sundaram BNP Paribas Fixed Term Plan Series XXXII
Tenure: 375 days
Offer Open: September 3, 2007
Offer Closes: September 6, 2007
Schemes: Growth, Dividend Reinvestment and Payout
Minimum Investment: Rs 5000
Cost Per Unit: Rs 10


ABN Amro Fixed Term Plan - Series 9
Tenure: 3 Years
Offer Open: Aug 29, 2007
Offer Closes: September 17, 2007
Schemes: Growth, Dividend Reinvestment and Payout
Minimum Investment: Rs 25000
Cost Per Unit: Rs 10

Spend less on Movies without losing the entertainment

With the ever growing popularity of the theatres for the movies and the ever growing youth who do not watch mind spending huge sums (Rs 160 to Rs 200 per movie per person and add to that the cost of snacks and the travel for the same), the family man finds the pinch in his pocket and lost in between entertainment and spending.

With the launch of DVD rental portals, video-on-demand facilities that have been provided by all the DTH (direct-tohome) operators and the availability of of DVDs of new movies (Not vety new though) at fairly low prices rates by companies such as Moser Baer and T-Series, there are much more choices now to watch movies. Not to mention the fact that very often TV channels end up airing movies within 6-8 weeks of the theatre release (But one will have to live to the fact that there will huge number of advertisements and possible some scenes missing from the movie to accommodate the same in the time slot provided by the TV channel).

So here’s how you can enjoy the complete movie (no theatre effects or special effects like a theater please unless one has a Home Theatre at home) without burning a big hole in your pocket.

RENT DVDS ONLINE
There are a handful of websites that allow renting of DVDs from the comfort of your home. Here the average cost of renting a DVD ranges from Rs 40–70 per DVD and the costs fall as you rent more. seventymm.com, catchflix.com, clixflix.com and cinesprite.com are some of the websites that currently offer DVDs on rent. On placing an order (either telephone, online or through SMS), the company delivers the DVDs at the address mentioned by you. The collection of previously ordered DVDs is done at the time of delivery of the new ones.

Have a look at various packages that these companies offer. These are usually based on the extent of usage. While some are based on the number of DVDs you take, others offer unlimited usage for a fixed rate.

VIDEO-ON-DEMAND
DTH operators such as Tata Sky and Dish TV are offering videoon-demand (VOD) services that ranges around Rs 75 for a single movie. This is available for viewing for a day and one could watch it many times within the 24-hour period. One problem is its inability to pause or rewind the crucial scenes. At the moment, Tata Sky (as per call centre officials) are only offering Hindi movies through its VOD service while Dish TV is offering English movies as well.

MTNL’s IPTV is offering VOD at costs ranging from Rs 20-70 per DVD. While video-on-demand is a good alternative, especially when some DVDs might not be available for renting, the cost at the moment is higher than renting DVDs. Also, there are lesser movies available at any point in time to watch.

BUYING DVDS
Moser Baer and T-Series have dramatically cut the price of DVDs and VCDs. There is generally an eight-week window between the time the movie releases in a theatre and its DVD release. So, if you are willing to cool your heels, you could actually buy the DVDs at Rs 49. And watch it forever. Obviously, it is only select movies that are available for a song, the rest continue to sell at higher rates.

FMP Update

Here is another launch of an FMP and this time it is from ING Vysya Mutual Fund

Please read the following blogss to get details about what an FMP is

1. Why invest in Fixed maturity plans ?

2. Fixed Maturity Plan - FAQ

ING Fixed Maturity Fund - Series XXXII
Tenure: 368 Days
Offer open: August 30, 2007
Offer closes: September 10, 2007
Plan: Retail and Institutional
Schemes: Growth Dividend and Bonus
Minimum investment: Rs 5000
Cost Per Unit: Rs 10

Idle Money – Make more with Reliance Salary Addvantage

Some time back, Reliance mutual fund had launched a product called Reliance Salary Addvantage. This certainly is something interesting and apart from the standard information that u can find at http://www.reliancemutual.com/, I am providing other information that is not available at the webs site but are interesting facts which you should consider before opening an account here.

Any idle money that you have (Typically lying in the savings account) can be invested in this scheme (Min Rs 500) which is then invested in the Reliance liquid fund (This will give higher returns than the returns that a savings bank account will have). One is then given an ATM card from using which once can access upto 75% of the funds invested through any ATM that is VISA enabled.

One is allowed one free withdrawal a month from any HDFC bank ATM, while withdrawal from other ATMS will be charged. Additional withdrawals over the single free withdrawal that is provided in HDFC bank ATM will also be charged. These charges are close to INR 10-11 per withdrawal.

Balance enquiry using the ATM on the value of the units will also be charged.

Any withdrawal from the ATM is akin to a withdrawal of some of the units of the fund and having instant cash. This card can be used at any POS machine also at a charge and can be used to buy the typically stuff that you will used to purchase anything with a debit card.

I feel that this is a good product to move the idle funds that one typically has in the savings account (maintained for emergency purposes) to this product s one gets the dual advantage of higher tax returns and at the same time has adequate instant liquidity that is required during emergency.

Proposal for Waiver of entry load in Mutual Funds

There is a proposal by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to allow investment in Mutual Funds without any entry load if it is directly invested by the investor with the Mutual Fund house i.e. investor does not invest through a intermediary such as a bank, broker, financial consultant, Financial distributors etc

At present, the biggest MF distributors happen to be banks, with the top five accounting for 70% of the entire market of equity-related MFs. More than 50% of private banks’ revenues today come from fee-based income, which mainly comprises of selling MF and insurance products.

Some fund managers and CEOs feel the move has the potential to boost the insurance business at the cost of MFs. However, some others feel the move is very important as the waiver will benefit end investors. As there will be no commission received by the financial distributors, they may prefer selling insurance products as it is more lucrative in terms of commissions and products like ULIP are in any case sold by these distributors as a product that combines insurance and investment.

Selling MFs gives the distributor a commission of 2.5%, but distributors of insurance products, which include unit-linked insurance plans, can charge commissions up to 25 times that of MFs. Presently, there are around 60,000 AMFI-certified MF agents in the country compared with more than a million insurance agents.

The top 10 cities account for 80% of the mutual fund assets, according to a BCG report. The non-urban areas still are heavily invested in savings accounts and MFs find it a challenge to tap this market. Without the aid of distribution it will be difficult to tap this market. It is expensive for a MF to reach every corner of the country and in a country like India distributors are doing this for them at a low cost of 2.5%.

Thus, it becomes important for the industry now to concentrate on the non-urban areas to expand. If the entry load is waived, getting new business from small towns could get tough.

Fidelity launches Fidelity India Growth Fund

In addition to the Fidelity international opportunities fund, it now launches a new new open-ended equity fund called Fidelity India Growth Fund. The fund would primarily invest in growth oriented companies in Indian and International markets.

The scheme seeks to invest in the best opportunities in the Indian and international markets, without any sector or cap bias. The fund managers will follow bottom up stock picking strategy. The focus will be on companies that offer best value relative to their respective long-term growth prospects, returns in capital and management quality.

However, while investing in the international markets, the fund managers expect to identify such investments which could provide opportunity to participate in the Indian economy. For example - Indian businesses that are listed in international markets or international companies that participate in the Indian economy.

Around 80-100 % of investments would be allocated to equity and equity-related instruments. Money market component in the portfolio would be around 0 - 20 per cent.

Snapshot
Face Value: Rs 10
Type of Fund: Open- End
Options: Growth, Dividend Reinvestment and Payout
Minimum Investment: Rs 5000
Entry Load: An entry load of 2.25% would be charged for investment less than 5 crores.
Exit Load: An exit load of 1% would be charged if the investment is redeemed with in six months from the date of allotment.
Offer Opens: September 3, 2007
Offer Closes: September 26, 2007