The Voya Japan TOPIX Index Portfolio Class A (IJIAX): Historical Overview

The Voya Japan TOPIX Index Portfolio Class A is an index fund, not an actively managed mutual fund, so it necessarily tracks its benchmark index.

By David Ashworth

Nov. 6 2015, Updated 12:04 a.m. ET

An introduction

Unlike other Japan-focused mutual funds in this review, the Voya Japan TOPIX Index Portfolio Class A (IJIAX) is an index fund. While actively managed mutual funds can either track their benchmark index or deviate from it, depending on market conditions and management style, an index fund necessarily tracks its benchmark. This is visible in its objective, which states that “the Portfolio seeks investment results (before fees and expenses) that correspond to the total return (which includes capital appreciation and income) of the Tokyo Stock Price Index.”

But although the fund is passively managed and aims to track its underlying index as closely as possible, it’s not necessary that the fund always holds all the securities in the index. The fund can also invest into index futures and other derivatives as substitutes of the index’s securities.

Here are a few key facts to consider about the Voya Japan TOPIX Index Portfolio Class A (IJIAX):

Article continues below advertisement

IJIAX is quite diversified, with 1,457 holdings as of September 2015—the most among the other funds we’re reviewing in this series.
At the end of September, the fund had assets under management worth $313.86 million.
According to its June 2015 portfolio, IJIAX’s equity holdings included Honda Motor Company (HMC), Canon (CAJ), Sony Corporation (SNE), and Astellas Pharma (ALPMY), which together comprised 4.2% of the fund’s total portfolio.

Historical portfolios

For this analysis, we’ll be considering holdings as of June 2015, which represent the latest available sectoral breakdown available to us. The fund’s holdings after June 2015 reflect the valuation-driven changes to the portfolio rather than of the holding itself.

Since the fund is index-tracking and not actively managed, its portfolio composition will give you a brief overview of how the portfolio of the index has looked over the past few months.

So how did the Voya Japan TOPIX Index Portfolio Class A (IJIAX) perform in September? Continue to the next part of this series to find out.