ITC debt fund corpus rises to Rs 40 crore

Mumbai, Dec 9: The high interest fund from ITC Threadneedle Asset Management Company has seen its corpus swell by Rs 27 crore to Rs 40 cr...

Mumbai, Dec 9: The high interest fund from ITC Threadneedle Asset Management Company has seen its corpus swell by Rs 27 crore to Rs 40 crore in November from Rs 13 crore in June 1997. The High Interest Fund is a debt fund from the mutual fund. On the other hand, the ITC Threadneedle Top 200 equity fund has seen its corpus fall by 29.61 per cent from Rs 52.40 crore as on June 30 to Rs 36.88 crore as on September 30, 1998.

ITC Threadneedle Mutual Fund has two schemes under its umbrella one equity fund and another debt fund. The net asset value NAV of Top 200 equity fund has risen by 0.53 per cent from Rs 13.15 as on March 31 to Rs 13.22 as on December 8.

During the same period the BSE Sensex has dropped from 3,892.75 to 2,945.64, a drop of 24 per cent while the BSE 200, its benchmark index, has fallen from 376.64 as on March 31 to 302.98 as on December 8 a drop of 19.55 per cent. The fund has thus outperformed Sensex by 24.53 per cent and BSE 200 by 19.53 per cent.

The high interest fund has also seenits NAV rise to Rs 12.27 for the growth option giving an annualised return of 13.20 per cent since inception.quot;The past few years we have been emphasising on increasing our reach and network in India with offices in eight cities now, concentrating on good performance and building a track record, in effect making our presence in the market. Now, we are concentrating on increasing awareness about the fundquot;, said the managing director of ITC Threadneedle AMC, Richard Overton.

Explaining the marketing strategy general sales manager of ITC Threadneedle AMC, Vishal Kapoor says: quot;We have been giving huge impetus to our bond fund which is the income scheme emphasising on the safety, liquidity and returns generated by the scheme. Although, the Top 200 equity fund, is performing very well, but the appetite for equity products is low and so the thrust has been on bond fundquot;.

The portfolio of Top 200 has seen some changes since July 30, 1998. The automobile and tyres sector which had an NAV weightage of 11 per centhas seen it rise marginally to 11.18 per cent with addition of Hero Honda and deletion of Castrol, Mico and Telco from the portfolio. HDFC has seen its weight in NAV rise from 2.52 per cent to 3.15 per cent.

The consumer and non-durables sector has seen its weightage in NAV rise from 13.82 per cent to 18.43 per cent with inclusion of Dabur into the portfolio. The pharmaceutical sector has seen it weightage rise from 15 per cent to 18.43 per cent of the NAV.

Story continues below this ad

The high interest fund has also seen changes in its portfolio from July 30 to November 30, 1998. The portfolio has liquidated holdings in paper of Indian Rayon amp; Industries, IPCL, GE Capital Services India, ICI India, Motorola India, Nestle India, Parke Davis India and Tata Chemicals.

The debt portfolio has seen inclusion of paper of Central government, Citicorp Finance India, HDFC, Reliance Capital, Bharat Forge, IDBI and Ashok Leyland Finance.