Pete Raine

In this part, we’ll compare WAINX to four similar India-focused funds. These include INDAX, MINDX, ETGIX, and FIGZX.

The Wasatch Emerging India Fund (WAINX) invests with the objective of long-term capital appreciation. The fund invests mainly in small-sized and mid-sized companies with a market cap less than $5 billion.

As of December 31, 2015, Matthews India Fund has the lowest holdings turnover among the five funds.

Healthcare was the best-performing sector in Indian markets in 2015.

The Matthews India Fund gave a negative return of -0.6% in 2015. However, it still managed to outperform its benchmark.

MINDX seeks to invest at least 80% of its total assets in publicly traded common stocks, preferred stocks, and convertible securities of companies located in India.

Agricultural output was reduced due to adverse weather conditions that made food prices soar. Let’s look into some key reasons for the high inflation.

South Africa’s unemployment rate was as high as 25% in 2015. The high unemployment rate has been a serious issue in the country for several years now.

The mining and quarrying industry in South Africa witnessed sharp falls. Possible reasons include falling commodity prices globally and weakened demand.

The finance sector here consists of finance, real estate, and business services. The South African economy depends heavily on the manufacturing sector.

All five India-focused funds have their highest individual sectoral exposure to financials. As reported in the news, 2015 has been a year of global economic stress.

The MSCI India Index is the benchmark index of the Franklin India Growth Fund (FIGZX). The fund has underperformed the benchmark index.

The Franklin India Growth Fund (FIGZX) invests with the aim of long-term capital appreciation and across market caps, in equities of companies based in India. As of December 31, 2015, the fund’s total net assets under management were $122 million.

The Eaton Vance Greater India Fund – Class A (ETGIX) is in a close range to the returns of the benchmark for all three periods. In 2015, the fund gave a return of -6.1%.

Compared to other India-focused funds, ETGIX has a small portfolio, comprising only 33 holdings. As of September 30, 2015, the top ten holdings of ETGIX formed 46.8% of the portfolio.

As of December 2015, the Wasatch Emerging India Fund has ~$69.2 million in assets under management. As of September 30, 2015, the fund had 76 holdings in its portfolio.

In 2015, the Matthews India Fund returned -0.56%. It outperformed the benchmark index S&P BSE 100 over all the periods reviewed.

The Matthews India Fund (MINDX) invests mainly in small-cap and mid-cap Indian stocks. As of November 2015, the fund had $1.5 billion in assets under management.

In 2015, the ALPS Kotak India Growth Fund returned -4.6%. The top holding of the portfolio, Infosys, formed 5.7% of the fund’s portfolio and returned 7.5% in 2015.

The ALPS Kotak India Growth Fund (INDAX) intends to invest at least 80% of its net assets directly or indirectly in equity and equity linked securities of Indian companies.

With 2015 behind us, we will study the prospects of Indian equities in 2016. We will look at certain macro indicators and the performance of the Indian equity market.

The FPI, which was on a losing spree before December 16, came back strongly. Indian stock markets also started gaining.

After the first four months of an impressive net inflow of FPI, Indian equities lost a substantial investment of foreign money. August 2015 witnessed the highest exodus of foreign money from Indian equities.

In this article, we will analyze the sector-wise performance of Indian stocks for 2015—a dismal year for all sectors.

In this series, we will analyze the performance of the Indian equity market in 2015. The S&P BSE Sensex, considered as a benchmark index, gave a return of -3.7% in 2015, expressed in Indian rupees.

Despite the government’s efforts, the infrastructure sector seems far from being on the recovery path.

In the first two quarters of fiscal 2016, the production growth of four out of the eight sectors has fallen as compared to the first two quarters of fiscal 2015.

The sales growth in three major infrastructure sectors has fallen sharply in the first two quarters of fiscal 2016.

The private sector is lagging as compared to others regarding projects awarded. The public sector projects far outnumber both the private and PPP projects.

In this article, we will look at how stocks of some major Indian infrastructure companies have performed in the last year.

Infrastructure companies are normally highly leveraged. A highly leveraged company has a higher dependence on debt from banking and financial institutions.

The NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government came to power in May 2014. With big promises of development, the party aimed to push major reforms to help speed up India’s recovery process.

India’s net FPI (foreign portfolio investment) has been negative on almost all days in December, especially for the equity segment, which saw a net outflow of $287 million on December 1.

The RBI (Reserve Bank of India) didn’t lower the interest rate in its bimonthly review on December 1, 2015. The RBI kept the policy repo rate unchanged at 6.8%.

According to India’s government, the construction sector is valued at over $126 billion.

According to the Indian government’s estimates for the five years from 2006–2007 to 2010–2011, the construction sector contributed 8% to India’s GDP.

Due to the healthcare sector’s evergreen nature, the S&P BSE Healthcare Index has been able to provide a healthy return amid slowdowns in other sectors.

The S&P BSE sector indexes are Energy, Finance, Industrials, Telecom, Utilities, Information Technology, and Healthcare.

The current global economy is under stress. Major benchmark equity indexes around the globe have given dismal returns, and India is no exception.

Cumulative data of FDI inflows since April 2000 show the services sector has received 17% of the total FDI inflows in India.

India’s FDI reforms are expected to boost foreign investment in major sectors including the construction, retail, defense, banking, agriculture, and aviation sectors.

On November 10, 2015, the government of India announced major reforms in FDI (foreign direct investment). The government has introduced reforms in 15 major sectors of the economy.

In the last one year, the T. Rowe Price Africa & Middle East Fund (TRAMX) has had a return of -19.5%. The return since the fund’s inception in September 2007 is about 0.2%.

The Nile Pan Africa A Fund (NAFAX) invests at least 80% of its portfolio in the stocks of Africa-based companies. The majority of the fund’s exposure is in South Africa.

Since its inception in November 2011, the Commonwealth Africa Fund has had a return of -4.3%. Given the poor returns, investors are unwilling to invest in the risks of Africa.

Within the last six years, 2009 was the best year in terms of returns for all three funds in existence then.

The Eaton Vance Greater India Fund Class A (ETGIX) is an equity fund that invests in Indian equities.

IGZX has given a return of 4.2% over a period of one year. The fund has outperformed the benchmark index over the past year.

The YTD return of the ALPS Kotak India Growth Fund is about 1%. On a cumulative basis, the fund has returned 30.8% since inception.

The Indian market’s PE and PBV multiples were lowest in fiscal 2013. The dividend yield was best in fiscal 2013.

India’s fiscal 2013 was the lowest in terms of market capitalization in the past five years. However, the foreign portfolio witnessed an impressive growth of about 80% in fiscal 2013 over the previous year.

Financials are the major holdings in Indian funds The three funds in this review—the ALPS Kotak India Growth Fund (INDAX), the Matthews India Fund (MINDX), and the Wasatch Emerging India Fund (WAINX)—provide investors access to Indian equities. The financial sector represents most of these funds’ respective portfolios, according to their latest releases. As of June […]

In this series, we’ll briefly overview the Indian equity market. Specifically, we’ll analyze trends in the Indian equity market over the past five years.

The movement in prices for TRREX, CSRSX, and FRESX shows a close relationship to the performance of the top holding in each portfolio.

Average annual returns for TRREX, CSRSX, and FRESX were 2.41%, 2.33%, and 1.39%, respectively. The returns are lower than the average annual return over the funds’ three-year and five-year periods.

YTD as of September 16, 2015, returns on an average annualized basis reflect the gloomy scenario of the real estate sector this year. FRESX returned -15.9%, CSRSX returned -20.5%, and TRREX returned -10.6% in the period.