Mutual Funds In Buying Mood

Mutual funds (MFs) acquired shares worth Rs 153.30 crore on 28 May 2007, as compared to an inflow of Rs38.30 on 25 May 2007. The BSE Sensex, which stayed above the 14,500 level, for most of the day, suddenly started declining in late afternoon trade, on heavy profit booking on 28 May 2007. It gained 59.44 points or 0.41% to settle at 14,397.89. MFs reported gross sales worth Rs 717.30 crore, while their gross purchases aggregated Rs 870.60 crore on 28 May 2007. So far for the month (till 28 May), MFs were net buyers of Rs 1432.69 crore in the Indian equity market. Mutual funds had pumped Rs 9062.34 crore into the Indian equity market in the financial year ended March 2007.

DBS Chola MF Rolls Out New FMP

DBS Chola Mutual Fund has rolled out DBS Chola Fixed Maturity Plan - Series 7 (Quarterly Plan - IV). The scheme has duration of 91 days. The current indicative yield (indicative yield is subject to minor changes) is 9.10%. The New fund Offer (NFO) period is from 28 May-1 June 2007.

Tata Pure Equity Fund Announces Dividend

Tata Mutual Fund has come out with a dividend of 30% (i.e. Rs 3.00 per unit on the face value of Rs. 10) under the dividend option of Tata Pure Equity Fund. The record date for the same has been fixed as 1 June 2007. Fund has declared this dividend after a gap of 16 months. In January 2006, a dividend of 10% was paid by the fund.

Franklin Templeton To Roll Out New scheme

Franklin Templeton Investments (India) is all set to unveil a new open end diversified equity fund called Franklin India High Growth Companies Fund (FIHGCF). The fund seeks to provide capital appreciation through investments in Indian companies / sectors with high growth rates. The New Fund Offer period will be from 31 May 2007 to 29 June 2007 during which, units will be available at Rs.10 per unit (plus applicable load).

Mutual Funds Take To Buying

Mutual funds (MFs) were interested in buying on 25 May 2007, after being net sellers for the preceding trading session, as they bought net equity shares worth Rs 38.30 crore. MFs made gross sales worth Rs 523.80 crore, while their gross purchases aggregated Rs 562.10 crore on that day. The market saw a complete trend reversal on Friday, 25 May 2007, and settled with gains from initial weakness. The Sensex jumped 120.34 points, or 0.85%, to 14,338.45. Shares from IT sector led the rally today. So far for the month (till 25 May), MFs bought shares worth Rs 1279.39 crore. Mutual funds had pumped Rs 9062.34 crore into the Indian equity market in the financial year ended March 2007.

Record Date Announced Under Principal Pnb FMP 91 Days-Series VIII

Principal Mutual Fund has fixed May 29, 2007 as the record date for the declaration of dividend under the dividend option of Principal Pnb Fixed Maturity Plan- 91 Days- Series VIII. The entire appreciation in the NAV from February 28, 2007 to May 29, 2007 would be declared as dividend.

MF NAVs Advance Sharply As Markets Close Higher

Equity diversified NAVs recovered earlier losses and ended higher with advance:decline ratio of 160:8 as the markets closed on an impressive note outperforming most of its Asian peers. The Sensex ended up 120.34 points or 0.85% at 14338.45, and the Nifty was up 43.25 points or 1.03% at 4248.15.
Balanced and tax saving funds also finished with positive returns, advance:decline ratio of 36:1 and 34, respectively. Birla Sun Life Tax Relief 96, Reliance Tax Saver (ELSS) Fund (G) and ABN AMRO Tax Advantage Plan (ELSS) (G) have gained.On the sectoral front, auto, FMCG, pharma and technology funds advanced whereas banking funds closed mixed. The BSE Health Care, Auto, FMCG and IT indices were up 0.20%, 0.38%, 0.53% and 2.49%, respectively. The BSE Bankex was down 0.16%. Technology funds were the outperformer yesterday; Franklin Infotech Fund (G), ICICI Pru Technology Fund (G) and DSP-ML Technology.Com (G) were the gainers.

Among the equity diversified funds, the top gainers were Sahara Midcap Fund (G) up 1.88%, ABN Amro Future Leaders Fund (G) up 1.57% and Principal PNB Long Term Equity Fund - 3 Year Plan - Series 1 (G) up 1.49%. The top losers were JM HI FI Fund (G) down 0.20%, Tata Select Equity Fund (G) down 0.18% and Standard Chartered Arbitrage Fund - Plan A (G) down 0.13%.

Among the tax saving funds, the top gainers were Birla Sun Life Tax Relief 96 up 2.09%, Reliance Tax Saver (ELSS) Fund (G) up 1.32% and ABN AMRO Tax Advantage Plan (ELSS) (G) up 1.16%.

Among the sector funds, the top gainers were Franklin Infotech Fund (G) up 2.30%, ICICI Pru Technology Fund (G) up 1.56% and DSP-ML Technology.Com (G) up 1.52%. The top losers were UTI Banking Sector Fund (G) down 0.27%, UTI Petro Fund (G) down 0.14% and JM Financial Services Sector Fund (G) down 0.09%.

Among the balanced funds, the top gainers were Birla Sun Life 95 Fund (G) up 1.91%, Kotak Dynamic Asset Allocation (G) up 1.66% and LIC MF Unit Linked Insurance Scheme up 0.94%. The only loser was Birla Balance (G) down 0.07%.

UTI Fixed Maturity Plan Announces Record Date

UTI Mutual Fund has declared June 1, 2007 as the record date for the declaration of dividend under the dividend option of UTI Fixed Maturity Plan Quarterly February 2007 Series II.

Kotak FMP Fund Comes Out With Record Date

Kotak Mutual Fund has fixed May 30, 2007 as the record date for the declaration of dividend under the dividend option of Kotak FMP 3M Series 11. The quantum of dividend will be 100 per cent of distributable surplus available on the record date.

Record Date In DBS Chola FMP Series-6 Q-III

DBS Chola Mutual Fund has announced May 30, 2007 as the record date for the declaration of dividend under the dividend option of DBS Chola Fixed Maturity Plan-Series 6 Quarterly III. The AMC plans to distribute entire appreciation in the NAV between March 2 2007 to May 30, 2007 as dividend.

Canbank MF Declares 50% Dividend For CanExpo Scheme

Kochi: Canbank Mutual Fund has announced an income distribution of 50 per cent for its CanExpo scheme, which has a face value of Rs 10. The record date for the income distribution for this open-ended equity-oriented specific-sector scheme has been fixed as May 29. The investment objective of the scheme has been to get capital appreciation by predominantly infusing in companies with substantial foreign exchange earnings.

Lotus India AMC Unveils New Scheme

MUMBAI: Lotus India AMC on May 25, declared the unveil of its close-ended debt scheme, Lotus India Fixed Maturity Plan-3 months-Series IX. The scheme targets at generating income by investing in a portfolio of debt and money-market instruments normally maturing in line with the duration of the scheme. The plan offers two options growth and dividend reinvestment. It is open for subscription from May 24 and will close on May 28. The minimum application amount is Rs 5,000. Units will be available at Rs 10 each. There is no entry load but there is an exit load of 0.75 per cent on investments if redeemed before the maturity date.

DBS Chola MF Announces Merger Of Two Schemes

DBS Chola Mutual Fund has announced the merger of DBS Chola Floating Rate Fund with DBS Chola Short Term Floating Rate Fund on 11 June 2007. DBS Chola Floating Rate Fund-Dividend Option will merge with DBS Chola Short Term Floating Rate Fund- -Monthly Dividend Option (Payout or Reinvestment - default being reinvestment) and DBS Chola Floating Rate Fund-Cumulative Option with DBS Chola Short Term Floating Rate Fund- Cumulative Option.
Consequent to the merger, DBS Chola Floating Rate Fund shall cease to exist while DBS Chola Short Term Floating Rate Fund will retain its identity with all the features available prior to merger. DBS Chola Short Term Floating Rate Fund was launched in August 2005 and DBS Chola Floating Rate Fund in August 2004. As on 31 March 2007 the net assets under management of DBS Chola Short Term Floating Rate Fund were Rs. 653.50 crore and that of DBS Chola Floating Rate Fund were Rs. 2.76 crore.

As a result of merger, the units of DBS Chola Floating Rate Fund will be converted into units of DBS Chola Short Term Floating Rate Fund at no cost - i.e. no exit load will be charged. Conversion of units will take place at applicable NAV as on the date of merger. In other words, the transaction will result into switch from DBS Chola Floating Rate Fund to DBS Chola Short Term Floating Rate Fund. Alternatively, you can also redeem your investment held in the plans before the date of merger without any exit load.

Standard Chartered MF Declares Dividend

Standard Chartered Mutual Fund has announced a dividend of 15% (i.e. Rs 1.50 per unit on the face value of Rs. 10) under the dividend option of Standard Chartered Classic Equity Fund. The record date for the same has been fixed as 28 May 2007. This is the second dividend being declared by the fund. In August 2006 also, the fund declared same quantum of dividend.

JM FMP Fund Declares Record Date

JM Financial Mutual Fund has announced May 28, 2007 as the record date for the declaration of dividend under the dividend option of JM Fixed Maturity Fund Series IV-Quarterly Plan 4. The quantum of dividend depends on the realized appreciation in the NAV of the plan from 1st April, 2007 till the record date.

UTI Asset Management Pre Pones Closing Date Of Fixed-Term Fund

MUMBAI: UTI Asset Management Co. (P) Ltd. said on May 25, it has advanced the closing date of UTI-Fixed Maturity Plan Quarterly Series (QFMP 05/07-II) to May 29 from an earlier scheduled close of May 31. The close-end fund opened for subscription on May 16. The fund house managed assets worth about 355 billion rupees at the end of April, data from Association of Mutual Funds in India displayed.

Lotus India MF To Declare Dividend

Lotus India Mutual Fund has announced the declaration of dividend under the dividend option of Lotus India Fixed Maturity Plan - 3 Months Series II. The fund house has notified 27 May 2007 as the record date for the purpose of declaring dividend. Distribution of dividend is subject to availability and adequacy of distributable surplus. Pursuant to payment of dividend, NAV would fall to the extent of dividend payout and statutory levy, if applicable.
The Fund will declare the actual distributable surplus available as on the record date as dividend and the same shall be compulsorily reinvested. The dividend is being declared on a face value of Rs. 10 per unit. NAV of dividend option as on 17 May 2007 for the Retail Plan was Rs. 10.1288 and for the Institutional Plan Rs. 10.1294 .

Reliance MF Files Offer Document

Reliance Gold Exchange Traded Fund (RGETF) is an open ended Gold ETF of Reliance Mutual Fund and will be listed on NSE and any other stock exchange(s) as may be decided by the Reliance Capital Asset Management after the allotment of the New Fund Offer (NFO) period in the form of an ETF tracking the domestic price of gold through investments in physical gold, money market instruments, and other securities as may be permitted by SEBI from time to time.
Each unit of RGETF being offered will have a face value of Rs.100. The number of units allotted would be the total amount invested divided by the allotment price. Allotment price of RGETF per unit will be based on the cost of investments. In other words, RGETF being offered will have a face value of Rs100 each and will be issued at a premium equivalent to the difference between the allotment price and the face value of Rs. 100.

After the NFO closes subsequent buying or selling by investors can be made from the secondary market on the NSE. RGETF can be bought/sold like any other stock on the Exchange. The minimum number of units that can be bought or sold is 1 (one) unit. Alternatively Authorised Participant and Large Investors can directly buy /sell in blocks from the fund in Creation Unit Size.

The investment objective is to seek to provide returns that closely correspond to returns provided by price of gold through investment in physical Gold and Gold related securities. However, the performance of the scheme may differ from that of the domestic prices of Gold due to expenses and or other related factors.

Switch-in into RGETF from other schemes will be allowed during the NFO period at the applicable loads.

DSPML MF Files Offer Document

DSP Merrill Lynch has filed an offer document with Sebi for launching an open ended equity fund of fund (FOF) scheme-DSPML Wealth Builder Equity FOF. The primary investment objective of the scheme is to seek to generate long term capital appreciation from a portfolio of equity schemes of Mutual Funds registered with Sebi, selected using CRISIL~CPR Quarterly Rankings or other performance ranking methodology selected by the Investment Manager. This shall be the fundamental attribute of the scheme. The scheme may also invest a certain portion of its corpus in liquid/short term/floating rate schemes, and debt and money market securities, in order to meet liquidity requirements from time to time. However, there can be no assurance that the investment objective of the scheme will be realised.
The fund seeks to raise a minimum subscription amount of Rs. 10 Crore during the New Fund Offer (NFO) period of the scheme. The fund shall allot units in respect of all eligible and valid applications. There is no maximum amount in respect to the size of the scheme.

The scheme with the NFO price of Rs 10 per unit plus applicable entry load will have two investment options. Option A-growth option and Option B-dividend option with sub-options payout dividend and reinvest dividend.

In the scheme for all first time purchases, the application must be for a minimum amount of Rs. 5000. For all subsequent purchases, the application must be for a minimum amount of Rs. 1000.

In the case of purchases through SIP, the minimum installment amount shall be Rs.

2000. Investors will have the option of switching all or part of their investments in the scheme, to any other open ended scheme established by the fund at redemption price in order to meet their changing investment needs.

15% Dividend In Standard Chartered Classic Equity Fund

Standard Chartered Mutual Fund has announced a dividend of 15% (i.e. Rs 1.50 per unit on the face value of Rs. 10) under the dividend option of Standard Chartered Classic Equity Fund. The record date for the same has been fixed as May 28, 2007. This is the second dividend being declared by the fund. In August 2006 also, the fund declared same quantum of dividend.

Lotus India Plan Raises Rs 137Cr

MUMBAI: A fixed maturity plan floated by Lotus India Asset Management Company has raised Rs 137 crore during the new fund offering. The NFO for Lotus India Fixed Maturity Plan -- 3 Month -- Series VIII closed. The plan will seek to generate income by infusing in a portfolio of debt and money market instruments normally maturing in line with the duration of the scheme. Lotus India Asset Management Company is a alliance between Fullerton Fund Management Group, owned by Tempasek Holdings of Singapore and Sabre Capital Worldwide.

Reliance MF Introduces Exit Load In Four Equity Funds

Reliance Mutual Fund has introduced exit load structure in its four equity funds: Reliance Growth Fund, Reliance Vision Fund, Reliance Equity Fund and Reliance Equity Opportunities Fund. From 21 May 2007 onwards, these funds will charge an exit load of 1% for investment amount less than Rs.5 crore if redeemed/switched on or before completion of 6 months from the date of allotment; and 0.50% for investment amount less than Rs.5 crore if redeemed/switched between 6 months 1 day and before completion of 1 year from the date of allotment.

South Korean MF Plans India Entry

The last three years have seen the entry of a large number of global fund houses, from the US, Europe and the major Asian markets like Singapore and Hong Kong, enter the buzzing Indian market. Now the South Koreans too are eying a pie of the Indian market.
Mirae Asset Management, the largest mutual fund house in Korea, is in the process of getting regulatory approvals from Sebi to launch its asset management operation here. A decade-old company, at present Mirae manages about $60 billion worth of assets, of which about $7 billion is invested outside of its home country. In Korea, it also has about 40% market share in the equity space.

Mirae is investing $50 million in India over a three-year period to set up its India arm for asset management, its core business. In Korea, it is also present in sectors like insurance, stock broking, private equity (PE) and real estate and is closely watching the developments in the PE and real estate sectors in India.

Birla MF Declares Dividend

Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund has announced 24 May 2007 as the record date for the declaration of dividend under the dividend option of Birla Fixed Term Plan Quarterly Series-7. The AMC plans to distribute entire distributable surplus available on the record date as dividend.

UTI MF Opens A Regional Office At Lucknow

UTI Mutual Fund (UTI MF) announces the opening of a Regional Office at Lucknow. The Regional Office will cover the regions of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Shri U K Sinha, Chairman and Managing Director, UTI AMC said, "The regions of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are important retail markets for UTI MF. With a view to increase our focus in these regions we have today opened a Regional Office in Lucknow which will cater to the region of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. This initiative will also help us to reach out to investors in the remotest areas across Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and make our products and services easily accessible to investors in these regions."

Shri Jaideep Bhattacharya, Chief Marketing Officer, UTI AMC said, "Presently in the region of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, UTI MF has 6 UTI Financial Centers (UFCs). During this fiscal year, we are proposing to open 4 new UFCs in this region".

UTI Mutual Fund has a wide distribution network comprising of 72 Financial Centers (UFCs), 434 Chief Representative Offices/ Chief Agents and over 27600 AMFI certified Financial Advisors. UTI Mutual Fund also reaches its investors through tie-ups with several Banks and Department of Post.

Mutual Funds Turn Sellers

Domestic mutual funds (MFs) turned net sellers on 18 May 2007, after buying for the previous two session, as they sold net equity shares to the tune of Rs 135 crore. MFs made gross sales worth Rs 669.40 crore, while their gross purchases aggregated Rs 534.40 crore on that day. So far for the month (till 18 May), MFs have invested Rs 2437.90 crore in Indian equity market. Mutual funds had pumped Rs 9062.34 crore into the Indian equity market during the financial year ended March 2007.

ICICI Prudential MF Launches New FMP Scheme

ICICI Prudential has launched a Fixed Maturity Plan (FMP). ICICI Prudential FMP-Series 36-18 Months Plan A is a closed ended debt fund. The objective of the scheme is to generate regular returns by investing in a portfolio of fixed income securities/ debt instruments normally maturing in line with the time profile of the plans under the scheme. The scheme, with the minimum subscription amount of Rs 5000 and in multiples of Rs 10 thereafter, has retail plan with growth and dividend payout option. The New Fund Offer (NFO) period of the scheme is from 14 May-24 May 2007.

UTI MF Hopes Gradual Fold Fund Demand

Mumbai: Gold-traded mutual funds, though slow in taking-off, are hoped to pick up in the next two-three years as the yellow metal has proved to be the only safe investment, offering a nine per cent return consistently in the long-term. Globally, the response to gold traded funds has been lukewarm in the initial two years but then it perks up considerably, sometimes exponentially. Contrary to belief, 35 per cent of gold in India is not for jewellery but procured for investment. Even in the US where gold traded funds were unveiled in March 2003, it took nearly two years for it to pick up after remaining static in 2004 before picking up in 2005. The growth became rapid from 2005 onwards and now nearly 600 tonnes of gold worth nearly $13-billion are with gold traded mutual funds globally of which the US market comprises of 450 tonnes ($9.5-billion).

Indian Mutual Funds set for huge growth

The Indian government's decision to allow the 'big boy' public sector units to invest in mutual funds and its invitation of pension fund managers to administer a new pension scheme for its employees are sure to bring further cheer to the robust mutual funds sector and, indeed, the promise of better returns to small investors as well.

Last week, the Congress-led NDA government in India invited bids from eligible pension fund managers to administer the Centre's new pension scheme for its employees.

Bids were invited from public sector funds to be floated by state-run banks, financial institutions and insurance companies which could have foreign investment of up to 26 per cent.

A bill seeking to allow private players entry into the pension sector and establishing a market regulator continues to hang fire as the Left has made it clear it will block the legislation.

The latest invitation for the bids, however, bypasses the bill and tries to bring in limited pension reforms by allowing foreign funds to participate in entities which will be set up by state-owned banks, mutual funds and FIs. The Centre had launched the new pension scheme three years ago.

A few days back, the government announced another important decision - to allow public sector units to invest in mutual funds after a gap of eight years. According to industry estimates, even if 10 per cent (around Rs 30,000 crore) of the cash lying with the PSUs comes to the MFs, the total asset size of the industry would near Rs 4 trillion. At present, the industry's assets under management (AUM) is Rs 3,50,000 crore (Rs 3.5 trillion) and has grown 51 per cent since the last one year.

SBI Mutual Fund adds Dish TV India; exits Atul Limited

SBI Mutual Fund enhanced exposure to telecom, service, textile and pharma whereas it reduced weightage to chemicals, steel, auto, and cement stocks. The fund increased its exposure in the telecom sector. It made fresh investment in Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) and Idea Cellular by buying 369,051 shares and 140,052 shares respectively. In the service sector, the top buys were Power Finance Corporation where the fund made fresh investments with the purchase of 1,401,619 shares, followed by Redington (India) with 108,744 shares.

The fund bought 1,82,446 shares of Arvind Mills and 73,591 shares of Eastern Silk in the textile sector. In the pharma sector, it bought 7,937 shares of Marksans Pharma and 5,444 shares of Ranbaxy. The fund reduced its exposure in the chemical sector by selling 11,52,382 shares of United Phosphorus. In the steel sector, the fund sold 2,499,324 shares of Welspun-Gujarat Stahl Rohren, 1,359,733 shares of steel authority of India and 1,049,847 shares of Tata Steel .

The fund sold 238,174 shares of Tata Motors, 111,430 shares of Maruti Udyog and and 71,434 shares of Mahindra and Mahindra. However, it bought 7,28,285 shares of Ashok Leyland in the auto sector. In the cement sector, 3,677,603 shares of Ambuja cement, and 1,852,332 shares of Mysore cement were sold. The assets under management of the SBI Mutual Fund advanced to Rs 183.38 billion as at April end compared with Rs 168.07 billion in the previous month.

LIC MF Tax Plan announce 10% dividend

LIC Mutual Fund has announced a dividend of 10% (Rs 1 unit at face value of Rs 10) in LIC MF Tax Plan an open-ended ELSS scheme, the investment objective of the firm is to provide long term capital appreciation and tax saving u/s 88 of IT Act.

Mutual Funds Increase Buying

Domestic mutual funds (MFs) continue to buy for the second straight day, to the tune of Rs 607.50 crore on 17 May 2007. MFs made gross purchases worth Rs 1098 crore, while their gross sales aggregated Rs 490.50 crore on that day. So far for the month (till 17 May), MFs have invested Rs 2549.90 crore in Indian equity market. Mutual funds had pumped Rs 9062.34 crore into the Indian equity market during the financial year ended March 2007.

Reliance MF Comes Out Exit Load In Four Equity Funds

Reliance Mutual Fund will be introducing exit load structure in its four equity funds: Reliance Growth Fund, Reliance Vision Fund, Reliance Equity Fund and Reliance Equity Opportunities Fund. From 21 May 2007 onwards, these funds will charge an exit load of 1% for investment amount less than Rs 5 crore if redeemed within 6 months and 0.50% for investment amount less than Rs 5 crore if investment is redeemed after 6 months but before 1 year.

Dividend Announced Under UTI Banking Sector Fund

UTI Banking Sector Fund has announced tax-free dividend of 35% (Rs.3.50 per unit on face value of Rs.10/-). Pursuant to the payment of dividend, the NAV of the dividend option of the fund would fall to the extent of payout and statutory levy if any. The record date for the dividend is 23 May 2007.
All unitholders registered under the dividend option of UTI Banking Sector Fund as on 23 May 2007 will be eligible for this dividend. Also investors who join the dividend option of the fund on or before the record date will be eligible for the dividend. The NAV per unit as on 17 May 2007 was Rs 18.80 under the dividend option. UTI Banking Sector Fund, an open-end equity fund, is one of the six funds launched under UTI -Thematic Fund. The investment objective of UTI Banking Sector Fund is to provide investors the benefits of capital appreciation and income distribution by investing in stocks of companies/institutions engaged in the banking and financial services activities.

Lotus India MF To Declare Dividend Under Lotus India Fixed Maturity Plan - 3 Months -Series I

Lotus India Mutual Fund will pay dividend under the dividend option of Lotus India Fixed Maturity Plan - 3 Months - Series I. The fund house has notified 21 May 2007 as the record date for the purpose of declaring dividend. Distribution of dividend is subject to availability and adequacy of distributable surplus. Pursuant to payment of dividend, NAV would fall to the extent of dividend payout and statutory levy, if applicable. The Fund will declare the actual distributable surplus available as on the record date as dividend and the same shall be compulsorily reinvested. The dividend is being declared on a face value of Rs. 10/- per unit. NAV as on May 14th 2007 for the Retail Plan was Rs. 10.1222 and for the Institutional Plan Rs. 10.1225 .All unit holders of dividend option under the Scheme, whose names appear in the records of the Registrar, Computer Age Management Services Pvt. Ltd., as at the close of business hours on 21 May 2007, will be entitled to receive the dividend.

ICICI Pru Services Industries Announces Maiden Dividend

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund has come up with a maiden dividend of 15% (Rs 1.5 unit at face value of Rs 10) in its open-ended equity scheme in ICICI Prudential Service Industries Fund. The investment objective of the scheme seeking to provide capital appreciation and income distribution to unitholders by investing predominantly in equity/equity related securities of the companies belonging to the service industries and the balance in debt securities and money market instruments including call money.
All investors registered under the dividend option of the scheme as on 11 May 2007 will receive this dividend. Please note that dividend as decided shall be paid, subject to availability of distributable surplus. Pursuant to payment of dividend, the NAV of the schemes would fall to the extent of payout and statutory levy (if applicable).

CanMulticap Scheme Provided For Repurchase Facility

CanMulticap Scheme, a five year close ended equity scheme provided for repurchase facility after 90 days from the date of allotment of the units. Such repurchase facility is provided to the investors on first and third Wednesday of every month. Accordingly, the Scheme shall provide repurchase facility to the unit holders on first and third Wednesday of every month and first such repurchase shall commence from16 May 2007. Unit holders who wish to offer their unit holding for repurchase may submit the redemption requests at the Investor Relation Centres or the notified offices of the Registrar, M/s. Karvy Computershare P. ltd.

No Service Tax On Entry, Exit Loads Charged By MFs: FM

Now, the mutual fund houses can have a sigh of relief. The Finance Ministry has announced that the entry and exit load charged from investors by mutual funds would not attract service tax under the category of fund management services. The revenue department has clarified that entry and exit load charges are not towards the fund management services provided by an asset management company (AMC), but to meet the initial issue expenses and other specified expenses of the mutual fund. Initial issue expenses of a mutual fund include initial brochures, SEBI approvals, advertisement, registrars, preparation of certificate, postage and distribution etc. The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has come up with this clarification in the wake of questions raised, especially within the revenue department, on whether service tax would be chargeable on the `entry and exit' load amount charged by a mutual fund to the investor.
The Government has gone along with the recent Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) judgment, which had said that service tax cannot be levied on the entry and exit load charged on an investor by a mutual fund. In May last year, the Directorate General of Central Excise and Intelligence (DGCEI) had shot off letters to various fund houses and sought information as to whether they were paying service tax on the entry and exit loads charged from investors. The DGCEI took a view that service tax was applicable on the entry and exit loads as they represented the value of services rendered by the mutual fund to investors. The total assets under management of the Indian mutual industry as at end-April 2007 stood at Rs 3,52,670 crore.

10% Dividend Announced In LICMF Tax Plan Fund

LIC Mutual Fund has come out with a dividend of 10% (i.e. Rs 1 per unit on the face value of Rs. 10) under the dividend option of LICMF Tax Plan Fund. The record date for the same has been fixed as May 18, 2007. The fund had already declared five dividends so far. The fifth dividend was of 25% which was announced in October 2006.

Irda Put Coundition For ULIP Policy Holders

Mumbai: The Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (Irda) has said that the policyholders in the unit linked insurance plans (ULIPs) can continue to invest in the policy for a short period after maturity, but cannot withdraw any amount or engage in fund management activities. In response to industry queries and for the benefit of policyholders, the Irda, in its clarification, has specified that while the policyholder had the option to remain with the scheme even after maturity, they cannot engage in fund management activities. To be precise, the policy holder will not have the option of switching funds, either to equity or debt or withdraw the amount. The decision to continue with the scheme after maturity will purely be the option of the policyholder.
While the permission has been granted for a short period of a week to a fortnight after the maturity of the scheme, no independent fund management activity will be allowed since the product does not give any insurance cover. Officials stated that the option would enable policyholders, who are not satisfied with the net asset value (NAV) during maturity, to hold on for a better NAV. Earlier, policyholders could remain with the scheme for five years after maturity and were entitled to partial withdrawal of funds, which have been plugged by the new clarification. Meanwhile, the regulatory authority is having a comprehensive review of the guidelines of ULIPs based on the experience of the industry in this product for over one year. The review will assess the life cover, investment portfolio, methodology of NAV calculation, among other things. ULIPs offer market-linked returns to customers, where customers can choose to invest in different asset classes such as money market instruments, debt or equities. Whether it's a regular premium or a limited premium plan, the minimum policy term for any unit linked plan is five years against the earlier three years. All ULIPs have a minimum life insurance cover which is five times one's annual premium.

Canbank MF Comes Up With Dividend

Canbank Mutual Fund has declared dividend in following schemes: DIVIDEND DECLARATION : DAILY DIVIDEND RE-INVEST WEEKLY DIVIDEND PLAN PLANCANLIQUID - INSTITUTIONAL 0.00179232 N.A PLANCANLIQUID - RETAIL PLAN 0.00179232 N. A. CANFLOATING RATE 0.00202611 N.A.

Franklin Templeton Joins Hands With Central Bank Of India

Franklin Templeton Investments (India) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Central Bank of India, a leading public sector bank, for the distribution of its products. Central Bank of India has emerged as a strong, vibrant and proactive Bank with customer-centric approach. The Bank has achieved a total business of Rs.1, 36,265 crore during the year 2006-07 by registering an overall growth of 29%. Bank earned a net profit of Rs.498 crore in last year as against Rs.257 crore of previous year recording a growth of 93.77 %. The Bank has aggressively moved towards the modernization and technology driven initiatives. The Bank has planned for its Initial Public Offer (IPO) and will hit the market shortly.
Ms. Daruwalla added In the Indian financial markets, Mutual Funds are rapidly gaining ground among retail investors due to various advantages such as professional management, diversification, liquidity etc. For us, this tie-up will open up further opportunities to provide our vast client base with a wider choice of products to meet their diverse financial needs and also give a boost to our fee-based income. We will distribute the entire range of Franklin Templeton products through our selected 305 branches across the country.

ICICI Prudential MF Notifies Change In Load Structure

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund has revised load structure in ICICI Prudential Equity and Derivatives Fund-Wealth Optimiser Plan. The scheme will charge 0.5% of the applicable NAV if redemptions /switchout are made within six months from the date of investment. However no charge will be laid for investment of Rs 5 crore and above and redeemed at any time. Also the charges are nil for redemptions made under Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) and Systematic Transfer Plan (STP). For switches made from ICICI Prudential Equity and Derivatives Fund Income Optimiser Plan or ICICI Prudential Blended Plan (Plan A) to any equity scheme the entry load as applicable to the target scheme (i.e. scheme to which amount is switched) will be charged. The change in the load structure in the relevant scheme is with effect from 16 May 2007.

15 Pc Dividend Announced Principal Large Cap Fund

Principal Mutual Fund has come out with a dividend of 15% (i.e. Rs 1.50 per unit on the face value of Rs. 10) under the dividend option of Principal Large Cap Fund. The record date for the same has been fixed as 15 May 2007. There shall be one day book closure in both dividend and growth option of the fund on 16 May, 2007.This is the maiden dividend being declared by the fund.

Canbank MF Announces Dividend

Canbank Mutual Fund has announced dividend in following schemes:
Date of dividend: 11/05/07

DIVIDEND DECLARATION: DIVIDEND DECLARATION DAILY DIVIDEND RE WEEKLY DIVIDEND INVEST PLAN PLAN CANLIQUID-INSTITUTIONAL PLAN 0.00171440 N.A CANLIQUID-RETAIL PLAN 0.00171440 N.A CANFLOATING RATE 0.00194818 N.A

Birla MF Announces Dividend In Birla Fixed Term Plan Quarterly Series-6

Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund has fixed 15 May 2007 as the record date for the declaration of dividend under the dividend option of Birla Fixed Term Plan Quarterly Series-6. The AMC plans to distribute entire distributable surplus available on the record date as dividend.

Insurer Max NY Life Eyes Mutual Fund Foray

Insurance company Max New York Life is looking to enter the mutual fund business in India. The move is part of the company's strategy to diversify from its existing line of business. The company, which is also looking to offer pension products over the next few months, may even consider an Indian listing of the entity after the next two years.
"The mutual fund market in India is diversified with only a few players so there is an opportunity and we will look at it," Max New York Life MD Gary Bennett. There are 30 players in the mutual fund industry in India and the total assets under management of the industry as on 31 March 2007 is Rs 3,26,388 crore, according to the web site of Association of Mutual Funds of India.

Max New York Life, one of the 16 private players in the life insurance business, accounts for 6% of the 30% market share that private players have. Seventy per cent market share in life insurance is still with state-owned behemoth Life Insurance Corporation.

The company, which hopes to break-even by the year 2008, is considering listing its insurance business at the domestic stock exchange. "Even though there are no immediate plans, if the business reaches a critical size, we will look at a listing of the insurance venture in India," added Mr Bennett.

The company is looking at offering pension products to private employees over the next few months. Indian regulations do not allow private companies to offer pension products to government employees.

Pension products can only be offered to employees in the private sector. Currently, HDFC Standard Life offers pension products.

The insurer is planning to introduce its distribution model in Gujarat, Haryana and Maharashtra to up its penetration in the rural market. The company has already penetrated the rural market in Punjab and has tied up with 22 co-operative banks across India.

Max New York Life currently has 1 million customers in force, 25,000 agents and 2,500 agency managers.

Reliance MF Declares Dividend

Reliance Mutual Fund has announced 15 May 2007 as the record date for the declaration of dividend under Retail and Institutional dividend option of Reliance Fixed Horizon Fund-II- Quarterly Plan- Series III. The quantum of dividend will be 100% of distributable surplus available on the record date.

SBI MF Witnesses Good Returns From Infrastructure Over Next 3 Years

New Delhi: SBI Mutual Fund predicts superior returns from investments in infrastructure over the next 3 years as against the return that a bank deposit could offer to an investor during this period. The possibility of superior returns in infrastructure is more. The New Fund Offer of the SBI infrastructure fund-Series-I opened on May 11 and would close on June 8. With an estimated Rs 14.5 lakh crore of investments to be made in the country's infrastructure during the Eleventh Plan, the fund house has come up with a three-year close-ended infrastructure fund to make the most of this investment opportunity.
About 65 per cent of the fund will be infused in companies involved in the infrastructure space. The proportion between large-cap and mid-cap stocks would be in 70:30 ratio. This fund would not have any sectoral or market capitalisation bias. SBI Mutual Fund hopes to garner more funds than what its previous NFO (SBI One India Fund) had attracted. SBI Mutual Fund had mopped up Rs 1,800 crore from its One India Fund in November last year.

ICICI Pru Dynamic Plan Buys Tata Steel, Cadila; Exits Wipro

ICICI Pru Dynamic Plan has increased its exposure to the metals, oil & gas, pharmaceutical, media, cement and chemical sectors in April. The scheme reduced its exposure to the IT, auto, banking & financial services, consumer non–durables, telecom, engineering & capital goods and manufacturing sectors.In the metal space, the scheme bought over 12 lakh shares of Tata Steel and entered into Sterlite Industries (India) by adding nearly 7 lakh shares. It also bought SAIL but sold Mukand Steel. In the oil & gas sector, the company bought over 7.4 lakh shares of ONGC.
In the pharma pack, the scheme bought over 10 lakh shares of Cadila Healthcare. It also added Novartis India but sold over 2.8 lakh shares of Dr Reddy’s Lab. It also sold Alembic. Other major names in the buy list of the scheme was Coromandel Fertilisers and Orient Paper and Industries. On the other hand, in the IT sector, the scheme has exited from Wipro by offloading over 6.8 lakh shares and sold over 1.7 lakh shares of TCS. It also sold HCL Technologies and Mastek but bought Infosys and Subex Azure. In the auto space, the scheme sold over 6 lakh shares of Maruti and exited from Amtek Auto and Tata Motors by dropping over 2 lakh shares and over 1.9 lakh shares respectively. M&M was also sold.

In the banking & financial services, it sold nearly 2.9 lakh shares of ICICI Bank and also dropped PNB but added Federal Bank. In the FMCG pack, the scheme exited from Marico by selling over 32 lakh shares and sold over 6.6 lakh shares of ITC. In the telecom sector, over 2 lakh shares of Bharti Airtel were sold but Sterlite Optical was bought.

In the capital goods

Fidelity Buys Out Burmans’ 25% Stake In Indian Arm

Fidelity International, one of the largest asset management companies in the world, has bought out the 25% stake of the Burman family, the promoters of Dabur group, in its Indian arm.
The move is another evidence of the increasing interest among global financial giants in the Indian market and their desire to consolidate operations. Post this transaction, Fidelity International will be the sole shareholder in its Indian AMC.

"We can confirm that the Fidelity International group now owns 100% of the share capital of Fidelity Fund Management," a Fidelity India spokesperson said. "As the business has grown, Fidelity wished to achieve full ownership in line with its general practice. We continue to enjoy good relations with the Burmans," she said.

Fidelity International is expected to infuse more capital in its Indian arm and expand its operations here. When Fidelity entered India three years ago, it had roped in the Delhi-based Burman family as a minority partner in its domestic asset management company.

The Burman family still holds 74% stake in its insurance joint venture with UK-based Aviva called Aviva Life Insurance India. Fidelity International manages over $280 billion for major institutions and millions of investors in regions other then US. In the US, Fidelity managed and advised assets more than $2.9 trillion as of December 31, 2006.

The fund house is yet to break even in its India operations. While it accumulated losses of around Rs 22 crore for the financial year ended March 2005, the losses worsened to Rs 56 crore last year. The company has not given out numbers for the year ended March 2007.

However, considering that Fidelity has more than 88% of its assets in equity, the fund house is expected to be valued atleast 6-8% of its total assets. Merchant bankers typically value an AMC based on its brand equity, distribution network, product mix and good retail clientele, among others.

The Indian asset management industry is one of the fastest growing industries in India with nearly 36 players striving to make their mark and presence felt. Recently, Rajan Raheja, the Mumbai-based real estate magnate, bought out ING Vysya Bank stake in the ING Vysya Mutual fund for an undisclosed amount.

Record Date In Reliance Fixed Horizon Fund

Reliance Mutual Fund has announced May 15, 2007 as the record date for the declaration of dividend under Retail and Institutional dividend option of Reliance Fixed Horizon Fund-II- Quarterly Plan- Series III. The quantum of dividend will be 100 per cent of distributable surplus available on the record date.

SBI MF Unveils Infrastructure Fund

Mumbai: SBI Mutual Fund has unveiled SBI Infrastructure Fund - Series I', a three-year close-ended growth fund, to invest in the equity of a diversified basket of companies directly or indirectly involved in infrastructure and in the debt markets. The new fund offer opens on May 11 and closes June 8. The fund will have growth and dividend investment options. This fund proposes to harness the investment opportunity in the infrastructure sector from the proposed spending of over Rs 14 lakh crore in the 11th Five Year plan. The fund will infuse a minimum of 65 per cent in equity and equity-related instruments, including derivatives, and the balance may be invested in a mixture of debt and money market instruments.

ICICI Pru AMC Adjudged Trusted Brand In Investment

In a glittering award ceremony held on May 4, 2007, ICICI Prudential AMC received the prestigious Trusted Brands ‘Gold Award’ in the Investment Fund Company Category for the year 2006 from Reader’s Digest, the world’s largest selling monthly magazine. Past Performance is no guarantee of future results. The Gold Trusted Brand award goes to brands that score well above their competitors. Reader's Digest assigned its awards based on 7,000 consumer responses to questionnaires and telephone interviews from across Asia. Respondents were asked to assign a score for each brand for the six core qualities: trustworthiness, credibility of image, quality, value, how well each brand understands consumers' needs, and its ability to innovate.

ING MF Launches Zoom Investment Pac

Mumbai: ING Vysya Mutual Fund is unveiling an investment plan called Zoom Investment Pac (ZIP), in an attempt to raise its assets in equity holdings. Under the scheme, systematic transfers from the fund house's liquid (debt) scheme to equity scheme will take place on a daily basis instead of the current once-in-a-month transfers. The fund house has also brought down the minimum investment under the plan to Rs 99 a day. The fund house would be shifting the money to the equity scheme on a daily basis, based on the denomination decided by the investor.
The open-ended investment option will have an entry load of 2.25 per cent and the minimum investment size is Rs 5,000. ING Vysya MF has an asset size of around Rs 3,100 crore of which nearly 80 per cent (around Rs 2,500 crore) comes from fixed income schemes, while the share of equity corpus stands at around Rs 580 crore. The fund house is soon to be renamed as ING Mutual Fund, following the sale of ING Vysya Bank's 39 per cent stake in the AMC to real estate tycoon Rajan Raheja. ZIP accentuates the same virtues of disciplined investing, Vikaas Sachdeva, country head, business development.

JM MF Unveils 5-Fold Strategy

Mumbai: Nearly five months after Sandip Sabharwal took over as chief investment officer at JM Financial Mutual Fund, the high-profile fund manager has drawn major plans for the small-sized fund house. Restructure the portfolio of equity schemes and make the schemes grow by five-fold from the present Rs 600 crore to Rs 3,000 crore in two years. Currently, size of its fund house is around Rs 3,200 crore. Of which, nearly Rs 600 crore is equities.
About portfolio restructuring, it said, its approach will be sustained growth with lesser volatility. In some cases, the sector-wise allocation was effected, and in certain cases portfolios were completely changed. The Securities and Exchange Board of India's proposed move to admit short selling of stocks by institutions may benefit mutual funds. Normally, it could be 10-12 per cent depending on the stock and could touch 20 per cent on a longterm. Initially, the market regulator may permit short selling of stocks in the F&O category. The Nimesh-Kampani controlled JM Financial recently purchased its foreign partner Morgan Stanley's 49 stake in investment banking business for Rs 88.5 crore, while sold its equal stake in the broking JV for Rs 1,970 crore.

Lotus India Arbitrage Fund Reopens For Ongoing Subscriptions

Lotus India Mutual Fund has announced the reopening of subscriptions for its Arbitrage fund from 3 May 2007. The new fund offer for Lotus India Arbitrage Fund closed for subscriptions on 20 April 2007.
The Lotus India Arbitrage Fund is an equity oriented interval scheme, which seeks to generate income through arbitrage opportunities emerging out of mis-pricing between the cash market and the derivates market and through deployment of surplus cash in fixed income instruments.

Lotus India Asset Management Company (Lotus India AMC) is a joint venture between Fullerton Fund Management Group (Fullerton) and Sabre Capital Worldwide. Alexandra Fund Management (AFM), the sponsor of Lotus India AMC, is an affiliate of Fullerton (both Fullerton and AFM are wholly owned by Temasek Holdings, Singapore.)

MF NAVs Regain As Markets End In Green

Equity diverisified NAVs recovered some earlier losses and ended the day with positive returns as markets closed in green after spending most of the day in negative terrain. The Sensex closed up 16.05 points or 0.12% at 13781.51, and the Nifty up 2.30 points or 0.06% at 4079.3.
Equity diversified funds advance:decline ratio stood at 110:50 and tax saving at 22:10.

On the sectoral front, banking and FMCG funds advanced while auto, pharma and technology funds declined. The BSE Bankex was up 1.46%. The BSE IT Index slipped 0.92%.

Long term debt funds finished with negative returns with advance:decline ratio of 62:13.

Reliance Capital Eaget To Bur Stake In Reliance MF

Mumbai: Reliance Capital surged 4.10 per cent to Rs 773 on market rumours that top private equity funds were eager to acquire stake in Reliance Mutual Fund. The stock saw a volume of 14.6 lakh shares and touched an intra-day high of Rs 779 per share. The Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Capital has increased over 141 per cent compared with its 52-week low of Rs 320 per share.

Mutual Funds On A Buying Spree

Domestic mutual funds (MFs) continued their buying for the fourth straight day as they purchased shares worth a net Rs 57.10 crore on Monday (7 May 2007). MFs made gross purchases worth Rs 706.90 crore, while their gross sales aggregated Rs 649.80 crore on that day. Mutual funds pumped Rs 9062.34 crore into the Indian equity market during the financial year ended March 2007.

SBI MF Declares Dividend

SBI MF declared a dividend of 40% (Rs 4 per unit on face value of Rs 10) in its open-ended Magnum Sector Fund Umbrella - SBI Magnum Contra Fund. The record date for the same is 11 May 2007. The investment objective of the scheme is to invest in undervalued scrips, which may be currently out of favour but are likely to show attractive growth in long term. The last dividend announced by the scheme was of 40% in April 2006.

DSPML MF Launches Micro Cap Fund

The DSP Merrill Lynch Micro Cap Fund is a three-year, close-ended equity scheme. It will automatically convert into an open-ended scheme after the expiry of three years.
The aim of the fund is to seek long-term capital appreciation by investing in a portfolio that substantially consists of stocks that are not part of the top 300 companies by market capitalisation.

Stocks that are not part of the top 300 companies by market capitalisation will constitute 65%-100% of the portfolio. Stocks that fall in the top 300 category will be allocated 0%-35% of the portfolio.

Debt and money market securities will constitute 0%-35% of the portfolio.

Lotus India MF Crosses Rs 2,000 Cr Of AUM

Lotus India AMC, a joint venture between Fullerton Fund Management Group and Sabre Capital Worldwide launched in July 2006, has crossed Rs. 2,000 crore assets under management (AUM) as on April 30, 2007. The strong growth of the company is attributed to the positive response that Lotus India Mutual Fund has received from retail as well as institutional investors for their equity and debt products. The AUM of Lotus India Mutual Fund has grown from Rs 1171.86 crore as on March 31, 2007 to Rs 2086.79 crore as on April 30, 2007. This shows a growth in AUM of about 78% during this period, thus making it one of the fastest growing fund houses in this period.

Small MFs Surpass Bigger Players

New Delhi: It's not only the big names that are expanding upon investors growing preference for mutual funds, as the industry minnows have outpaced even the country's top five players in terms of growth in assets. While the collective assets of fund houses in the country exceeded the Rs 3.5 lakh crore mark, adding over Rs 24,000 crore in April, the show was stolen by players such as Lotus India Mutual Fund, Taurus, ING Vysya and ABN Amro, which recorded a 20-80 per cent growth in their wealth during the month. In comparison, the top five fund houses, including Reliance, ICICI Prudential and Franklin Templeton recorded less than 12 per cent rise in their assets under management (AUMs).
Smaller mutual funds had unveiled a slew of NFOs (new fund offerings) during the first month of the current financial year, which led to a huge surge in their AUM. The market leader Reliance MF retained its position as the largest fund house with a growth of 5.44 per cent, while its closest rival ICICI Prudential clocked a 11.6 per cent jump in assets. Among the other top five players, Franklin Templeton and HDFC MFs gained 11.31 and 11 per cent respectively. In comparison, the public sector giant UTI MF's AUM fell by Rs 66 crore (0.2 per cent) in the month, while those of LIC MF, Tata MF, Birla MF and DSP Merrill Lynch dropped by 2-6 per cent.

The collective AUM of all the 30 fund houses surged to a record high of Rs 3,50,441 crore at the end of April, breaching the Rs 3.5 lakh crore level for the first time. The total assets of the fund houses have primarily swelled based on debt and fixed maturity plans and few equity schemes too. The combined AUM of the fund houses rose by over Rs 24,017 crore during the month to a total of Rs 3,50,441 crore in April as against Rs 3,26,425 crore in March. Reliance MF's AUM swelled to Rs 48,828 crore in April, gaining Rs 2,521 crore from Rs 46,307 crore in March, ICICI Prudential MF maintained its second position by growing to Rs 42,268 crore.

Gold BeES Can Be Guarantee

Mumbai: Gold BeES the Gold Exchange Traded Fund from Benchmark Mutual Fund, is now cleared security-forming part of the non-cash component of liquid assets for the capital markets as well as the future and options segments of the National Stock Exchange. It has been also classified as Group 1 security, attracting the lowest margin for trading and the lowest haircuts while used as collateral.

SBI MF Names Sanjay Sinha As CIO

Mumbai: Mr Sanjay Sinha, Head of Equities, SBI Mutual Fund, will take control as Chief Investment Officer of the mutual fund from June 1. Mr N. Sethuram Iyer, present CIO, who was on deputation from State Bank of India, will go back to the bank. Mr Sinha has managed the largest number of funds in SBI MF covering the entire spectrum of equity funds from index funds to diversified equity funds to sector funds.

DSP ML MF Looks At $100Mn Fund

New Delhi: DSP Merrill Lynch Mutual Fund is likely to unveil next month an open-ended fund of funds that will primarily infuse abroad in the Merrill Lynch International Investment Funds World Gold Fund (MLIIF-WGF). They are looking to raise at least $100 million here for the gold fund. SEBI has already given its clearance. It is likely to be unveiled next month. MLIIF-WGF mainly infuses in equities of companies that are into gold mining.

Mutual Funds On Buying Spree

Domestic mutual funds (MFs) continued their buying for the second straight day as they bought net shares worth Rs 298 crore on 3 May 2007. MFs made gross purchases worth Rs 690.40 crore, while their gross sales aggregated Rs 392.40 crore on that day.

AUM Of MF’s Go Up By 7.4 Per Cent

The industry closed April 2007 with Rs 3.50 lakh crore of assets under management (AUM). This was higher than what fund houses managed in March 2007: Rs 3.26 lakh crore, registering a rise of 7.4% in April 2007 over March 2007. AUM fund of funds (FoFs) were Rs 2203 crore.
Reliance Mutual Fund continued its run for largest fund house for April 2007 month also followed by ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund. Reliance Mutual Fund emerged as the country's largest fund house, displacing Prudential ICICI Mutual Fund from its first position end March 2007. Reliance Mutual Fund topped the charts with Rs 48828.03 crore AUM - a rise of 5.4% over March 2007. This is clearly more than what ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund managed: Rs 42267.85 crore in April 2007 (a rise of 11.6% over March 2007). Reliance Mutual Fund registered net purchases of Rs 2521.26 crore in April 2007 over March 2007.

The other toppers also registered a rise in its AUM in April 2007 compared with February 2007. ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, UTI Mutual Fund and HDFC Mutual Fund AUM increased by 11.6%, 0.1% and 11.0%, respectively, in April 2007. Occupying the third and fourth slots were UTI Mutual Fund and HDFC Mutual Fund, which had AUM of Rs 35517.01 crore and Rs 31485.16 crore respectively. UTI Mutual Fund maintained its third position from the previous month. It had the highest AUM in December 2006. HDFC Mutual Fund also maintained its third position from the previous month.

However, the other toppers registered a decline in AUM in March 2007 compared with February 2007. AUM Prudential ICICI Mutual Fund, UTI Mutual fund and HDFC Mutual Fund slipped 12.5%, 8.1% and 8.8%, respectively, in March 2007. Occupying the third and fourth slots were UTI Mutual Fund and HDFC Mutual Fund, which had AUM of Rs 35488.25 crore and Rs 28357.99 crore, respectively. UTI Mutual Fund maintained its third position from the previous month. It had the highest AUM in December 2006. HDFC Mutual Fund also maintained its position from the previous month.

The prominent mutual funds, besides the top four, in April 2007 include Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund (Rs 24510.0 crore), Birla Sun Life (Rs 18615.79 crore), and SBI Mutual Fund (Rs 18338.62 crore). Besides Birla Sunlife Mutual Fund, almost all the major funds showed a rise in AUM in April 2007 compared with March 2007.

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund recorded the highest inflow of Rs 4398.27 crore in April 2007, while HDFC mutual Fund, Reliance Mutual Fund, and Franklin Templeton Mutual registered an inflow of Rs 3127.17 crore, Rs 2521.26 crore and Rs 2491.20 crore, respectively. SBI Mutual Funds, Standard Chartered Mutual Fund and Kotak Mutual Fund also witnessed substantial inflow of more than Rs 1000 crore. Fidelity Mutual Fund's AUM increased by Rs 720.40 crore to Rs 6533.90 crore in April 2007.

Among the smaller players in the industry are Quantum Mutual Fund (Rs 57.39 crore), Escorts Mutual Fund (Rs 123.37 crore), BOB Mutual Fund (Rs 92.07 crore), Sahara Mutual Fund (Rs 177.67 crore) and Lotus India Mutual Fund (Rs 2086.79 crore). Some of the other fund houses, each with less than Rs 5000 crore AUM, are Canbank Mutual Fund, DBS Chola Mutual Fund, ING Vysya and Morgan Stanley Mutual Fund. StanChart Mutual Fund closed April 2007 with Rs 13976.36 crore -higher than Rs 11548.48 crore it had in end-March 2007.

Out of the 30 mutual funds, 24 registered a rise in the AUM in April 2007 over March 2007. The top three funds witnessing a rise in the AUM included Lotus India Mutual Fund (78.1%), Taurus Mutual Fund (28.7%) and ABN AMRO Mutual Fund (25.8%).

In terms of percentage fall, LIC Mutual Fund clocked the first position with a decrease of 6.3% in its AUM in April 2007 compared with March 2007, followed by Quantum Mutual Fund, registering a decrease of 5.0% in its AUM in this period.

Lotus India Mutual Fund Touches Rs 2,000 Crores Of AUM

Lotus India Asset Management Company Private Limited (Lotus India AMC) a joint venture between Fullerton Fund Management Group and Sabre Capital Worldwide, disclosed that it has crossed Rs. 2,000 Crores of assets under management (AUM) as on 30 April, 2007

DBS Chola Rolls Out New Scheme

DBS Chola has rolled out 91 Days Fixed Maturity Plan - DBS Chola
Fixed maturity Plan Series 7 Quarterly Plan III.

DBS Chola Qtly FMP Others Individuals NFO Closes on 8-May-07 8-May-07 NO OF DAYS 91 91 POST EXPENSES YIELD 10.25% 10.25% TAX RATES DIVIDEND Tax 22.66% 22.66% INDICATIVE RETURN Net of Tax 8.36% 8.98%

Record Date Announced In Standard Chartered FMP

Standard Chartered Mutual Fund has fixed May 8, 2007 as the record date for the declaration of dividend under the dividend option of Standard Chartered Fixed Maturity Plan- Quarterly Series 4 . The AMC intends to distribute entire appreciation in the NAV between March 30, 2007 and May 8, 2007 as dividend.

Franklin Templeton Announces Tax-Free Dividend

Franklin Templeton Investments (India) has com out with its second tax-free dividend of Rs.2.50 per unit (Face Value of Rs.10), in its fund - Franklin India Flexi Cap Fund. All investors registered in the Dividend Plan as on 9 May 2007 will receive this tax-free dividend. (Pursuant to payment of dividend, the NAV of the fund would fall to the extent of payout). The record date for the dividend is 9 May 2007 and any purchases on or before this date will be eligible for the dividend. There will be a one-day book closure for the growth and dividend plans on 10 May 2007 and will reopen for fresh purchases and redemptions on 11 May 2007. Under the dividend reinvestment plan, the dividend declared will be reinvested at the NAV of 11 May 2007 and unit holders will be allotted additional units for the dividend amount.

JM Financial To Unveil Contra-Fund In 3 Months

Mumbai: JM Financial Mutual Fund has decided to come out with a contra-fund over the next three months, said Mr Sandip Sabharwal, Chief Investment Officer-Equity of JM Financial Mutual Fund. JM Financial MF is looking at launching three equity funds in the current financial year. The fund house currently recorded a good response for their equity tax saver fund a three year close-ended scheme and is now looking at evolving an open-ended scheme in the same space. Traditionally, JM Financial had more of debt funds. They are slowly shifting focus to equity funds.

Record Date Announced In ICICI Prudential FMPY Series-12

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund has fixed May 7, 2007 as the record date for the declaration of dividend under the Retail and Institutional options of ICICI Prudential Fixed Maturity Plan Yearly Series 12. The quantum of dividend will be 100 per cent of distributable surplus available on the record date.