When ICICI Prudential launched its Target Return Fund last month, not many thought it had a chance in a market that was licking its wounds, with the benchmark Sensex having fallen from a peak of over 20,000 a year ago and hovering around 12,000 in May 2009.
The fund's CIO Nilesh Shah had then commented: "Any money is good money in these markets." Then came May 16, when the results of Polls 2009 were announced, giving the incumbent Congress-led UPA coalition a decisive mandate to stay in power for another five years.
The markets jumped in the next trading session by almost 2000 points, and the fund was one of the early gainers, collecting a whopping Rs 800 crore, this at a time when investors were steadily losing confidence in equity and related instruments.
The funds success seems to have rekindled the hopes of the mutual fund industry, which has been starving for fresh cash from equities over a year now. As many as 14 equity funds are currently lined up with Sebi, awaiting the market regulator's green signal.
Leading the new fund offer (NFO) race is the country's largest asset management company Reliance with as many as six equity schemes, including an international fund and a gold fund. The other fund houses lined up to launch their offerings in the market pretty soon include IDFC, DSP Blackrock, Tata, Fidelity, Canara Robeco and the newcomer Shensei Asset Management.
NFOs, often treated as vehicles to raise money by the mutual fund companies, had virtually dried up over the last year and a half owing to the prevailing slowdown in the general economy. Those launched had failed to ignite much interest in the investors. IDFC, which had launched its India GDP and Strategic Sector (50-50) earlier this year, has managed to accumulate only Rs 51 crore and Rs 22 crore respectively in each of these funds till date. JM Financial, which had launched its Nifty Plus and Large Cap this year, was also a complete failure with assets under management of Rs 10 crore and Rs 5 crore respectively till date.
Though the fund managers and the distributors at large are upbeat with the return of investor interest in the existing equity schemes, it would be rather interesting to see if each of these funds will succeed in igniting the same level of investor interest as ICICI Prudential.
The fund's CIO Nilesh Shah had then commented: "Any money is good money in these markets." Then came May 16, when the results of Polls 2009 were announced, giving the incumbent Congress-led UPA coalition a decisive mandate to stay in power for another five years.
The markets jumped in the next trading session by almost 2000 points, and the fund was one of the early gainers, collecting a whopping Rs 800 crore, this at a time when investors were steadily losing confidence in equity and related instruments.
The funds success seems to have rekindled the hopes of the mutual fund industry, which has been starving for fresh cash from equities over a year now. As many as 14 equity funds are currently lined up with Sebi, awaiting the market regulator's green signal.
Leading the new fund offer (NFO) race is the country's largest asset management company Reliance with as many as six equity schemes, including an international fund and a gold fund. The other fund houses lined up to launch their offerings in the market pretty soon include IDFC, DSP Blackrock, Tata, Fidelity, Canara Robeco and the newcomer Shensei Asset Management.
NFOs, often treated as vehicles to raise money by the mutual fund companies, had virtually dried up over the last year and a half owing to the prevailing slowdown in the general economy. Those launched had failed to ignite much interest in the investors. IDFC, which had launched its India GDP and Strategic Sector (50-50) earlier this year, has managed to accumulate only Rs 51 crore and Rs 22 crore respectively in each of these funds till date. JM Financial, which had launched its Nifty Plus and Large Cap this year, was also a complete failure with assets under management of Rs 10 crore and Rs 5 crore respectively till date.
Though the fund managers and the distributors at large are upbeat with the return of investor interest in the existing equity schemes, it would be rather interesting to see if each of these funds will succeed in igniting the same level of investor interest as ICICI Prudential.
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