US focus helps investors
If you had placed your bets on tech-focused funds and US focused equity schemes, you are probably now laughing all the way to banks.
Mumbai: If you had placed your bets on technology focused funds and US focused equity schemes, you are probably now laughing all the way to the banks.
The top best performing mutual funds in 2013 have turned out to be either the US focused equity schemes or funds that invest their corpus in technology companies, which derive a major chunk of revenue from the US and European markets.
ICICI Prudential Technology Fund tops the chart with a whooping 64.15 per cent return followed by Motilal Oswal MOSt Shares NASDAQ 100 ETF, which had delivered a return of 55.92 per in 2013.
Other best performing funds include SBI IT Fund, Franklin Infotech Growth and Birla Sun Life New Millennium Growth that had generated a return of 55.76 per cent, 54.29 per cent and 50.80 per cent respectively, according to data available with Morning-star India, a mutual fund research firm.
The major factors, according to fund mangers, that had benefited these funds include the sharp depreciation in the local currency agai-nst the dollar and improving growth prospects in the United States economy, which again means more business for the domestic IT companies.
For instance, the ICICI Prudential Technology Fund, which has a total asset under management of Rs 150 crore, had invested predominantly in the stocks of Infosys Ltd, MindTree Ltd, Persistent Systems, Tech Mahindra and Oracle Financial Services Software.
“Technology stocks did very well based on the fact that the US economy is getting out of recession, which means more business for the domestic IT companies. Additio-nally, the depreciation in the Indian rupee also came as an added benefit as these companies derive their revenues in dollar for their overseas business,” noted Aditya Agarwal, country manager, Morningstar India.
American technology majors like Apple Inc, Microsoft Corporation, Google Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Qualcom Inc accounts for a major portion of Motilal Oswal MOSt Shares Nasdaq 100 ETF.
“Its an excellent play on the global markets as these companies are well diversifies across geographies,” commented Aashish Somaiyaa, the chief executive officer of Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund.