DSP BlackRock MF launches DSP BlackRock World Agriculture Fund

DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund has launched DSP BlackRock World Agriculture Fund, an open-ended fund of funds-overseas scheme.

The investment objective of the scheme is to seek capital appreciation by investing predominantly in units of BlackRock Global Funds World Agriculture Fund (BGF - WAF). The Scheme may, at the discretion of the investment manager, also invest in the units of other similar overseas mutual fund schemes, which may constitute a significant part of its corpus.

The exit load, when the holding period from date of allotment is less than 12 months, is 1%. When the holding period is 12 months and longer, the exit load is nil.

The new issue closes on 14 October 2011.

The minimum investment amount is Rs5,000 and in multiples of Re1 thereafter.

The benchmark for comparing the performance of the scheme is the DAX Global Agribusiness Index. Mehul Jani (dedicated fund manager for overseas investments) is the fund manager.

Source: http://www.moneylife.in/article/dsp-blackrock-mf-launches-dsp-blackrock-world-agriculture-fund/20207.html

Taurus Mutual Fund launches Taurus Opti Plans.

There are two facilities under Taurus Opti Plans (TOP) viz. Taurus Opti SIP and Taurus Opti STP.

Taurus Mutual Fund has introduced Taurus Opti Plans (TOP), which will be available to investors in all the open ended schemes of Taurus Mutual Fund where facility of Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) and Systematic Transfer Plan (STP) has been provided. 

There are two facilities under Taurus Opti Plans (TOP) viz. Taurus OptiSIP and Taurus OptiSTP.  By opting for TOP, investors can optimise the returns on their investment as they get to define the upper and lower limits of investment to be made at desired frequency to achieve their financial goal.  By doing so (defining limits), the customer will invest a higher amount within the defined limit and buy more units when the markets are low and vice versa.

Commenting on the introduction of new facilities Waqar Naqvi, CEO of Taurus Mutual Fund said, "We have introduced Taurus Opti Plans to provide more convenience and flexibility to investors.  We believe that this flexibility of investment amount in the facility will attract more investors and investments in this choppy and volatile market, where timing the market could go against the investor.”

The Taurus Opti Plans facility has been introduced with effect from 28th September 2011.

Source: http://www.indiainfoline.com/Markets/News/Taurus-Mutual-Fund-launches-Taurus-Opti-Plans/5255004447

Global crisis will not hit India in a big way: Prashant Jain, HDFC Mutual Fund

This is not the first time that the world is facing a financial crisis. Crises have come and gone and so will the sovereign one. With valuations near a trough, it may be time for investors with a two-to-three year horizon to buy stocks, says HDFC Mutual Fund's chief investment officer Prashant Jain, who manages more than Rs 90,000 crore, in an interview with ET. Edited excerpts:

What is the difference between the 2008 crisis and now?
In 2008, no one was expecting the markets to fall or the crisis to happen. It just happened overnight. So there was an element of shock. This time, we've known for several years that Iceland, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy etc are under stress. So, this time the shock value is missing.

What could be done to avert a crisis?
I have limited understanding of Europe, but in my experience typically a solution is found for problems that are anticipated for some time. As far as India is concerned, the impact on the economy should be very limited. This is because we do not have any material investments in these geographies. Even the exports to the troubled countries are very small.

What happens when French and German banks are hit by these sovereign losses?
The impact of it should be very local. Indian companies and citizens do not have any worthwhile investments in these countries, or banks. The impact on exports should also be minimal as our exports to the troubled economies are not significant.

What should investors do when there's so much happening in the financial world?
Panic does not last in perpetuity. It lasts for short periods of time. One way or the other, the Greece issue should be largely over in the next few weeks or months, and markets will price it in. There'll be minimal impact on the Indian economy.

Investors should adopt a staggered approach while investing in the current markets. This is so because while there is good value from a medium-to-long term perspective, there is uncertainty in the short term and unlike the economy, the equity markets can get impacted due to sentiment in the short run.

What to do with Indian equities during these times?
The long-term range of P/E multiple of Indian market has been between 10 and 22 times. Even during crisis, the P/E s did not go below 10-11 times. This is so because at 10-11 P/Es, earnings yields become higher than G-sec yields. At present, P/E is 13 times one year-forward earnings... Over a one year period, there's very limited downside from current levels in my opinion.

Though it is a difficult time and sentiment is negative, P/E multiples are quite reasonable. I expect one year down the line interest rates to be lower. And lower interest rates are supportive of higher P/E multiples. I am reasonably optimistic, over onetwo years, markets should trend higher.

But the turbulence in currency markets due to these factors is hurting the Indian rupee. What could be the impact of depreciating rupee?
Indian exports should do well in the years to come. China has been our major competitor in manufactured exports and rupee has depreciated 15-20% against the yuan and it should continue to appreciate as a result of balance of payments surplus. India's competitiveness is improving in manufactured exports.

Our quality and technology are also improving. Sectors like textiles, where China has been the main competitor, are doing better now. What has happened in IT in past 10 years should happen to the manufacturing sector over the next 10 years.

But the capital flows?
Capital flows can get disrupted, but it'll not have a large impact on our economy as our savings rate is pretty high and we're able to fund almost 90% of our needs internally. It is possible for one year, till the time capital flows remain disrupted, GDP may grow slower by 1-1.5 percentage points, but it'll continue to grow.

RBI is well-placed and has a lot of room to maneouvre - interest rates are at high levels. The moment you start lowering rates, it'll be an effective counter balance.

India's macro fundamentals also seem to be weakening, especially fiscal deficit.

The key problem is fiscal deficit - we'd have done much better otherwise. When the global crisis took place last time, if we had had smaller stimulus, I don't think it would have hurt us badly.

Yes, we'd have grown at 6%... but the fiscal position would have been much better. The impact of borrowings lasts for several years . Lower growth for some time is better than higher fiscal deficits.

What about inflation?
A global slowdown is actually supportive of a lower fiscal deficit by way of lower oil prices and commodity prices. Subsidies have been the main reason for fiscal stress. If we had increased diesel price two years ago, we'd have significantly lower fiscal deficit and lower inflation today.

Economy would also have slowed down a bit because people would have slightly lesser amount of money as a result of higher expenditure on fuel. Higher interest rates are leading to a slowdown in interest-sensitive sectors and global commodity prices are also moderating, so inflation should be lower next year.

But the RBI governor seems to be seeing little chance of commodity prices easing due to easy monetary policy in the West.

If the demand for commodities comes off, prices should soften. Low interest rates globally are driving money into commodities. Commodities prices are much harder to forecast. Slowdown in China should also adversely impact commodity prices... Another positive factor is that there is an increase in supply of iron ore, coal, oil and natural gas in 2012 and beyond.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/interviews/global-crisis-will-not-hit-india-in-a-big-way-prashant-jain-hdfc-mutual-fund/articleshow/10164594.cms

Be cautious in this fairly-volatile market: Satish Ramanathan, Sundaram Mutual Fund

In an interview with ET Now, Satish Ramanathan, Director & Head-Equities, Sundaram Mutual Fund, talks about the current global volatility and shares his outlook for different sectors. Excerpts:

How were you approaching this market and do you think in the near term Indian markets have bottomed out?
I don't think so. There are still a lot of global fears moving through and we also have to recognise that the trading volumes in these markets have come down significantly.

There could be pressures due to redemptions coming in for the FIIs and any of these pressures could push the markets down further than we think.

So I do not think we are still clearly out of the woods, but having said that valuations are definitely much more attractive than before, I think that it would be a wait and watch rather than a plunge in deep.

You have a fair degree of exposure to defensives, you own stocks like IGL, HUL, couple of pharma names, so what is your strategy there and at these levels are you reducing your exposure to defensives and increasing your exposure to other sectors?
We have to be cautious in this market which is fairly volatile. It would be a good idea to keep booking profits as we move on, and as and when stocks reach fair value, one should not be scared of giving them up because we are not in the middle of a bull market.

Consequently, booking profits as and when stocks reach their target prices is a good idea, whether be defensive or infrastructure or any other sector for that matter.

What are you making of the kind of volatility that the commodity universe is witnessing, given the kind of choppiness that you have seen across the metals basket in particular? What would be your view on some of these names the likes Sesa Goa, Sterlite and the rest?
Some of them are attractively valued, if you take a medium-term perspective. But there could be still short-term pain in these stocks. So the way we are approaching these stocks is that we keep a small exposure and we trade in and trade out as and when we make a little bit of money.

But we should be very fairly cautious that just as much as inflation is a worry for us, deflation is also emerging to be a bigger worry for the rest of the world. So we need to understand that commodity prices can surprise us on the downside very quickly, as we are seeing in the case of copper which has fallen very sharply over the past two to three months.

You have a very large degree of exposure to Reliance and Cairn which means you are bullish on energy or local energy companies. At these levels are you looking at increasing your exposure to Reliance and Cairn?
Reliance and Cairn have reached fairly attractive levels. Having said that if the global oil prices were to fall for some reason, there could be a bit of stress on these stocks, but there are fairly attractive cash flows coming in for both these companies. Consequently we have kept these companies as a defensive exposure rather than an exposure on growth for commodities.

Just want to have your view in terms of the movement that we have seen across the real estate universe, be it a DLF, Unitech, HDIL and couple of these local names as well. Is there a whole lot to read into it or do you think these are just technical bounces?
These are technical bounces because we still have not come to structural problems that many of these companies will go through. The fact that they have to restructure their balance sheets, the fact that they have to sell off their access assets. All of these take time and we haven't come anywhere close to that. Hence I would be wary of these moves.

In the midcap space, what has been your portfolio strategy and where have you allocated disproportionate amount of money? Just for the benefit of our viewers Satish had identified IGL a year ago and that stock has doubled from those levels. So which is your next midcap bet now?
Amongst the midcap space we think that we have to be fairly diversified. It is not about a single sector or a stock. We are in the process of going through and reeling down and understanding companies such as Cummins and other global infrastructure companies who have a decent cash flow and who have the capacity to buy back stock as well as bring in contemporary technology. So we like Bosch, we like Cummins, we like FAG Bearings in that space.

Accenture came out with its numbers yesterday or rather last night and the management commentary clearly indicates that IT spends have not been impacted by the kind of slowdown in the west and they are pretty much stable. So that should augur well for the Indian IT space accompanies with the rupee decline too?

In case of Accenture and Cognizant, they have been coming out with good results. In the case of Indian IT space, it is becoming very company specific, companies that win deals versus companies that do not win deals and there is a little bit of pricing pressure as well.

So Indian companies will need to invest significantly in marketing and other spend which could contract their margins and we need to bear in mind that the leading Indian companies have a much higher margin levels than the international companies.

So the issue in IT is not about growth, it is more about margins and margin pressure that would come through. The growth will cool off probably six months from now which is what the market is worried rather than the shorter-term growth.

Why are stocks like L&T, BHEL they are getting completely smashed out of shape and at these levels are you tempted to revisit large capital good/machinery space?
It is tempting without doubt. These valuations are something which we have not seen in a long time. The primary problem about infrastructure companies is not something about the global issues, but rather local issues.

If there is confidence that local execution rates are going up and order books are going up, then these stocks are definitely worth holding in one's portfolio considering the quality and pedigree of these stocks.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/interviews/be-cautious-in-this-fairly-volatile-market-satish-ramanathan-sundaram-mutual-fund/articleshow/10155627.cms?curpg=3

BNP Paribas MF expands its equities fund management team

BNP Paribas Mutual Fund continues to expand its equities fund management team with the addition of two senior members to enhance its research capabilities.

Mr. Apurva Shah has joined the team as Head - Investment Research and will head a team of analysts across asset classes. Mr. Shah was the Head of Research - Institutional Equities at Prabhudas Lilladher leading an 18-member research team and has over a decade of experience in the Indian equity markets first as an analyst covering various sectors and then as a strategist covering market overall. Through his career, he has covered sectors as varied as Technology, Media and Financials. Mr. Shah is a CFA charter, a post graduate degree in management from Mumbai University and an engineer from Poona University.

Mr. Abhijeet Dey, with over 10 years of experience, has also joined the team as a Senior Research Analyst. In his previous assignment, Mr. Dey was a Senior Research Analyst at Kotak Mahindra AMC. Mr. Dey has a master’s degree in management and is an Engineer from Mumbai University.

Announcing these appointments, Mr. Nikhil Johri, Managing Director, BNP Paribas Asset Management said, “We are delighted to welcome Apurva and Abhijeet to our team and are sure that their expertise and experience will add a lot of value to the performance track record of our funds.”

“We have been investing in building our team and capabilities in India as part of our endeavour to achieve our long term business ambitions in the country. We continue to strive towards delivering better performance for the benefit of our investors”, he added.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/bnp-paribas-mf-expands-its-equities-fund-management-team/450619/