Franklin India Opportunities Fund The Sensex Over Countries - Dec 08, 2008

Background: Franklin Templeton Assets Management (India) Pvt. Ltd. Is a wholly owned subsidiary of Templeton International Inc. set up in February 1996. Franklin is one of the largest financial services groups in the world, based in California, USA. It has over 50 years experience in international investment management with offices in over 29 countries. The fund house manages assets worth Rs 19443.51 crore in November 2008.

Franklin India Opportunities Fund (G) an open-ended equity growth scheme launched in February 2000. The investment objective of Franklin India Opportunities Fund (G) is to achieve log term capital appreciation by capitalising on long term growth opportunities in the Indian economy. The minimum investment amount is Rs.5000 and in multiples of Rs.1000 thereafter. The unit NAV of the scheme was Rs 15.96 as on 05 December 2008.

Portfolio: The total net assets of the scheme decreased by Rs 50.58 crore to Rs 394.95 crore in November 2008.Franklin India Opportunities Fund (G) took fresh exposure to six new stocks in November 2008. The scheme has purchased 96438 units (1.04%) of Punjab National Bank (PNB), 1.73 lakh units (0.57%) of IVRCL Infrastructures & Projects, 57498 units (0.52%) of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise and 28446 units (0.40%) of Lupin among others in November 2008.

The scheme completely exited from Reliance Communication by selling 1.53 lakh units (0.76%), Ipca Laboratories by selling 71666 units (0.62%) and Reliance Capital by selling 32020 units (0.47%) among others in November 2008.Sector-wise, the scheme took fresh exposure to Healthcare at 0.52%, Pharmaceuticals - Indian - Bulk Drugs at 0.40% and Paints / Varnishes at 0.24% in November 2008.Sector-wise, the scheme exited completely from Trading at 0.05% in November 2008.

The scheme had highest exposure to Reliance Industries with 3.26 lakh units (8.90% of portfolio size) followed by Bharti Airtel with 5.16 lakh units (8.35%), Infosys Technologies with 2.36 lakh units (7.08%) and ITC with 12.98 lakh units (5.43%) among others in November 2008.It reduced its exposure to Reliance Industries by selling 9 units to 3.26 lakh units (by 1.14%), Larsen & Toubro by selling 54008 units to 2.81 lakh units (by 1.13%), HDFC Bank by selling 40493 units to 1.63 lakh units (by 1.06%) and Bank of India by selling 1.79 lakh units to 1.50 lakh units (by 0.87%) among others in November 2008.

Sector-wise, the scheme had highest exposure to Refineries at 11.13% (from 11.15% in October 2008), followed by Computers - Software - Large at 9.76% (10.26%), Telecommunications - Service Provider at 9.41% (7.46%) and Banks - Private Sector at 9.12% (10.81%) among others in November 2008.

Sector wise, the scheme had reduced exposure to Banks - Private Sector at 9.12% (by 1.69%), Engineering - Turnkey Services to 4.94% (by 1.13%) and Finance – Housing to 5.23% (by 0.70%) among others in November 2008.Performance The scheme underperformed the category average over all time periods. It has underperformed the Sensex over most of the time periods.

Over three-month period ended as on 05 December 2008, the scheme posted negative returns of 35.72% underperforming the category average that posted negative returns of 34.82%. It outperformed the Sensex, which has posted a negative return of 38.10% during the same period.Since inception, the scheme posted 66.62% returns outperforming the category average of 65.13%.