HSBC roots for Asia

After the recent rout, fund houses seem to be betting on the Asian markets. HSBC Global Asset Management India has launched its Asia Pacific (ex Japan) Dividend Yield Fund. The fund will be managed by Piyush Harlalka and Sanjay Shah and will be open until February 17, 2014. It will invest in the units of an offshore dividend yield fund managed by HSBC. The underlying offshore fund has managed to pay 3-3.5 per cent of its NAV as dividend in the last two years.

The fund has a fourth of assets parked in stocks of Australian companies. Chinese stocks account for 19.5 per cent of the assets followed by Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Its India exposure was at over 5 per cent. The fund bets big on banks, which constitute over 26 per cent of the assets.

UTI turns 50

UTI Mutual Fund, the first fund to debut in India, turned 50 early this month. Presiding over a function held in Mumbai to commemorate this milestone, Finance Minister P Chidambaram declared open 101 UTI financial centres.

The number of UTI Financial centres across the country now stands at 251.