The Hindu Business Line : Franklin India Opportunities Fund: Invest

Investment can be considered in Franklin India Opportunities Fund based on its good track record in recent years. The fund was launched at the peak of the IT boom in early 2000 as Franklin Internet Opportunities Fund.

Having borne the brunt of the tech stock meltdown, the fund was restructured as a diversified “opportunities” fund in March 2004. At present, it is an aggressively managed diversified equity fund. Its investment strategy is that it will not focus on any specific market capitalisation range and will instead invest across the range based on market opportunities.

Suitability: The fund is suitable for aggressive investors as the risk profile is pegged between a normal diversified fund and a theme fund. The investment strategy is to invest a big proportion of its assets in the top three sector pr eferences. With more concentrated sector bets, the risk profile is higher and returns may be more volatile than those for a plain vanilla fund. Investors with a portfolio of large-cap funds, and risk tolerance can consider investing in the fund.

Performance: Franklin India Opportunities Fund has generated a return of 47.4 per cent for the past year in comparison to the 42 per cent managed by its benchmark BSE 200. The BSE Mid-cap Index has generated returns that are 9 percenta ge points better than the fund over the same period.

The fund had 30 stocks in its June portfolio, with assets in the top ten making up 57 per cent of the portfolio. Despite its aggressive mandate, the fund has toned down exposure to its top sectors in recent months. Construction stocks, which accounted for 31 per cent of the assets, were the top exposure in November 2006.

Over the past six months the fund appears to have consciously diluted its concentrated exposure to sectors and restricted each exposure to less than 20 per cent of the portfolio. This has implications for the risk profile, reducing the extent to which portfolio returns are impacted by out-performance or under-performance in a single sector.

More Stories on : Mutual Funds | Recommendation

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page