I would like to diversify my investment in International equity. Please suggest two good funds where I can start SIP of Rs 5,000 each? My time horizon is at least five years.
- Mangesh Khandekar
The reason you should consider global investments is that by spreading your money among several markets, you achieve what stock market theorists have been propounding for years-diversification and hedging risk by spreading it across a mix of assets and markets. However, investing in international funds is tricky because each fund is radically different from the other in its investment mandate and portfolio composition.
Currently, three types of global funds are available: those that allow direct investing into global markets; funds that use the feeder route to invest in an existing global fund; and lastly, fund of funds that invest in several funds to achieve international exposure. Some funds have geographical focus and some invest in a sector or a theme such as agriculture or commodities. You need to decide on the kind of exposure you need to invest. There are also funds that have a domestic and international exposure such as Templeton India Equity Income or Birla Sun Life International Equity. Both are equity diversified offerings and completely unbiased towards any sector, theme, asset or region. Another aspect that you should be aware of is the tax implication when investing in international funds, funds with less than 65 per cent domestic equity exposure are taxed as debt funds, which means short term and long term gains tax applies.
This article was originally published on April 12, 2013.
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