Skip to main content

DSP Blackrock World Agriculture Fund

DSP BlackRock's new fund offer (NFO), the World Agriculture Fund, is a fund of funds (FoF) scheme. The scheme will invest in the BlackRock Global Fund-World Agriculture Fund (BGF-WAF), that invests in equities of agricultural companies globally.

The BGF-WAF is benchmarked against Luxembourg's DAX Global Agribusiness Index. The scheme has performed in line with the benchmark in the past year (as on August 31) with returns of 20.5 per cent, whereas its benchmark has gone up 21 per cent. In the past six months, the fund's returns have fallen 7.5 per cent and its benchmark was down 6.6 per cent.

SNaganath, president and chief investment officer of DSP BlackRock, said, "Agriculture is a sector represented globally, which has sound fundamentals over the long term, given the rising imbalance between food demand and supply. We believe agriculture is an investment opportunity, with the potential for growth in the long-term." There are two more international feeder funds in India that invest in shares of agri-commodities companies abroad. Deutsche Asset Management, the mutual fund arm of Deutsche Bank, had a fund —DWS Global Agribusiness Offshore —launched in April 2010. This returned 2.49 per cent in the past year. Birla Sun Life Asset Management Companys Global Agri Fund has returned a negative 9.34 per cent. In comparison with equities, it has done better in recent times. The Sensex in the past year dipped 19 per cent.

The charges for international feeder funds are no different from what domestic fund investors would pay. The overall asset management charges are capped at 2.25 per cent. The fund invests in agricultural science companies, fertilisers, agricultural equipment, agribusiness, food processors, land & farming, forestry and allied sectors.

For investors wanting to take advantage of the agri-commodities story, this fund is a good opportunity. The international trend of investing in scrips such as Monsanto, Potash Corp, Deere, ArcherDaniels-Midland, Wilmar International etc. is an added attraction.

The move seems timely, as analysts feel prospects for the agriculture sector look bright. The agri-commodities space looks promising, as prices are likely to rise.

The disadvantage of investing in a global feeder fund is that it is treated as a debt fund and you have to pay capital gains tax. The shortterm capital gains tax (less than 12 months) is 30 per cent. The longterm capital gains tax (more than 12 months) is lower, at 10 per cent without indexation or 20 per cent post it.

A fund such as this is meant for those with a large portfolio and a capacity to bear risks and the volatility associated.

The exposure to thematic funds should be 5-10 per cent. And, to invest in these requires a more active management by the investor.

Besides the usual risk of investing in equities, there is a foreign exchange risk as well on investing in an international feeder fund.
 

Popular posts from this blog

How to gauge the risk profile of your mutual fund portfolio?

MUTUAL funds are considered to be an investment option for those who do not generally devote a lot of time to monitoring and managing their portfolios. Investors experience both good as well as tough times as far as mutual fund investments are concerned. But while evaluating the portfolio of their equity mutual fund holdings there are a few points that one should check to know about the level of risk that they are facing. Often there are situations where there is a higher risk than what was estimated initially. Here are a few ways to evaluate various risk levels. Individual holding exposure : The portfolio of the equity fund where one has invested or plans to invest needs to be scrutinised to see whether the risk levels are such that could lead to a larger volatility in the holdings. Depending upon this factor and the risk taking ability of the investor the choice about a particular fund as an investment should be made. One key point to watch out is whether there is a large ex...
Read more

Tata Fixed Income Portfolio Fund dividend

Invest In Tax Saving Mutual Funds Online Download Tax Saving Mutual Fund Application Forms Buy Gold Mutual Funds Call 0 94 8300 8300 (India)       Tata Mutual Fund has announced dividend under the dividend option of Tata Fixed Income Portfolio Scheme B2 Plan A-DQ, Tata Fixed Income Portfolio Scheme B2 Reg-DQ and Tata Fixed Income Portfolio Scheme B2 Direct-DQ. The record date has been fixed as August 29, 2013. Happy Investing!! We can help. Call 0 94 8300 8300 (India) Leave your comment with mail ID and we will answer them OR You can write back to us at PrajnaCapital [at] Gmail [dot] Com --------------------------------------------- Invest in Tax Saving Mutual Funds ( ELSS Mutual Funds ) to upto Rs 1 lakh and Save tax under Section 80C. Invest Tax Saving Mutual Funds Onlin...
Read more

NRIs and direct taxes code (DTC)

DTC Proposes To Do Away With Special Provision That Allows NRIs Liberalised Duration Of Stay In Country      THE new direct taxes code could bring a large number of global Indians under the tax net, as it does away with a provision that allowed individuals to escape tax in any country citing double tax avoidance.    The new legislation, introduced in Parliament on Monday, says an individual shall be a resident of India in any financial year if he is in the country for more than 59 days in that year, and has been has been India for more 365 days in four preceding financial years. A number of Indian industrialists including Vedanta's Anil Agarwal and Essar's Ravi Ruia have acquired non-resident status over the years.    The DTC has only attempted to clean up the provision in line with the laws globally. A phrase "being outside India" in the existing income tax law exempted individuals who stay outside the country for six months from paying taxes. This was prone ...
Read more

Stick to Good Fund Manager who Can Multiply Your Investment

A manager may be the difference between the best and worst funds. Here's how you can find the right one    Does a mutual fund manager make a difference to your investment? The answer may not be as easy as you think, since most best-performing mutual funds have moved away from individualistic fund management to process-driven methods, limiting the scope of an individual's role in investment decisions. In fact, many fund managers would speak at length about how the "system" their fund house has in place makes their task of picking stocks easy even though it restricts their freedom. Still, the question is important, especially after recent reports that the Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Sebi ) may ask fund managers to disclose to investors their track record of managing money. Let us take a look at the universe of large-cap funds over the past five years. According to Value Research, an independent mutual fund tracking firm, the topper in the category is DSP...
Read more

Health insurance guide - Part I

Insurance, by definition, is morbid. What if I die suddenly? What if my home caught fire? What if I had to undergo expensive medical treatment? What if something that I thought happened only to others befell me? Insurers, who work with large samples, calculate the probability of such an event and, hence, the possibility of them having to pay out a sum of money to mitigate, to the extent possible, the effects of that disaster. However, the possibility of you undergoing some kind of expensive medical treatment during your lifetime is far more likely than you dying suddenly or your house burning down. Given that costs at private healthcare facilities, where you are most likely to land up, is high, and, doubling every four years 10 months or so, the rest of your money life could easily go out of whack if you had to incur such expenses. Just 12 per cent of India's population is covered with some sort of health insurance. Pared to the bone, for a comparatively small price, health insu...
Read more
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Invest in Tax Saving Mutual Funds Download Any Applications
Transact Mutual Funds Online Invest Online
Buy Gold Mutual Funds Invest Now