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Summary: Sixty overseas equity funds and, for nearly all of them, the answer to whether you can put money in is no. That is not a fund house decision. It comes from a ceiling fixed on a single date in 2022, and it quietly decides who gets in. This week one door opened again. It will not necessarily stay open.
Baroda BNP Paribas Aqua reopened on September 1, the only one of 60 overseas equity funds that will accept a new investor. Other international funds are closed to new investors. Closed to new investors does not mean closed to new money. Of the 59 closed funds, 34 still collect instalments from SIPs registered earlier; 25 have stopped those too. SEBI caps each fund house at the overseas exposure it held on February 1, 2022, when the industry hit its $7 billion ceiling. These funds therefore keep shutting and reopening as headroom becomes available.
What changed this week
| Fund and what it buys | What changed | From | Put in a lump sum | Start a new SIP | Keep an old SIP going |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baroda BNP Paribas Aqua Shares in water utilities and related businesses | Reopened for lump sums, switches, SIPs and STPs | Sep-01 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
The month’s four biggest gainers take no new investors
In the month to August 31, DSP World Gold Mining gained 30.3 per cent, Nippon India Taiwan Equity 20.1, DSP World Mining 17.0 and ICICI Prudential Strategic Metal and Energy 15.3. None will register a new investor, but all four still take instalments from SIPs and STPs registered earlier, so existing holders keep buying.
Three dig things out of the ground, though in different mixes of gold, other metals and energy. The fourth is no miner: the Taiwan fund is up 128.4 per cent in a year, the largest number here.
Mining led, property lagged
We sorted the 60 funds into nine groups by what their scheme documents say they buy and the index each is measured against.
PGIM India Global Select Real Estate fell 2.5 per cent last month, Kotak International REIT 2.2 per cent and Mahindra Manulife Asia Pacific REITs 1.5 per cent. Their group is up 10.3 per cent over a year, the weakest of the nine, against 75.8 per cent for mining. Of the three, only the PGIM fund has stopped old instalments.
How each kind of fund did
| What the fund buys | Funds | 1 month (%) | 3 months (%) | 6 months (%) | 1 year (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shares in mining and energy companies | 3 | 17 | 11 | 3.1 | 75.8 |
| Shares in one sector or theme, worldwide | 8 | 5 | -1.4 | 15.2 | 32.5 |
| Shares listed in the United States | 19 | 4.2 | -1.9 | 19 | 30.7 |
| Shares in Asia and China | 8 | 3.4 | -0.9 | 11.6 | 35.3 |
| Shares in emerging markets | 5 | 3.1 | -4 | 11.9 | 47.4 |
| Shares spread across many countries | 11 | 2.2 | 2.4 | 10.8 | 23.2 |
| Shares in developed markets outside the US | 1 | 1.9 | 3.4 | 8.1 | 31.1 |
| Shares in Europe | 2 | 1.6 | 4.7 | 8.9 | 33.3 |
| Property trusts and real estate shares | 3 | -2.2 | -0.3 | 0 | 10.3 |
The premium is the price of a door that never shuts
Global ETFs listed on Indian exchanges are the next easiest way in. You buy them on the exchange at whatever price the market is asking, which is not the same as what the shares inside are worth, and that difference is the premium. It rose on all six this week.
Five of them now sit above their own average for the past year. Motilal Oswal NASDAQ 100 finished September 2 at 21.5 per cent above the value of its holdings, against 10.8 per cent on an average day over the year. Nasdaq Q50 is at 21.8 per cent against an average of 14.6 per cent.
Nippon India Hang Seng BeES is the exception at 2.9 per cent, against an average of 14.5 per cent. Mirae Asset Hang Seng TECH, which buys Hong Kong technology shares while BeES buys the broad Hong Kong market, currently trades at 22.1 per cent premium.
The premium is not what you are buying. It is what you hand over on top of what you are buying, and it is worth looking up before you place an order.
Global ETFs: Where the premium stands
| Global ETF | NAV (Rs) | Market price (Rs) | Premium now (%) | Average premium, past year (%) | Premium range over the year (%) | Traded daily, average (Rs cr) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Motilal Oswal NASDAQ 100 | 270.56 | 328.83 | 21.5 | 10.8 | -3.0 to 27.7 | 23.26 |
| Motilal Oswal Nasdaq Q50 | 118.28 | 144.06 | 21.8 | 14.6 | 1.7 to 26.4 | 1.41 |
| Mirae Asset Hang Seng TECH | 18.42 | 22.5 | 22.1 | 19.7 | 12.4 to 36.4 | 2.37 |
| Mirae Asset NYSE FANG+ | 172.97 | 209.39 | 21.1 | 19.7 | 11.8 to 30.1 | 5.64 |
| Mirae Asset S&P 500 Top 50 | 66.55 | 80.22 | 20.5 | 19.5 | 14.5 to 23.7 | 1.54 |
| Nippon India ETF Hang Seng BeES | 455.48 | 468.63 | 2.9 | 14.5 | 2.1 to 25.6 | 8.2 |
| As of September 2, 2026. Traded daily is the average daily turnover over the past year. NSE data. | ||||||
Which fund is open changes quickly, and premiums change faster. Neither tells you whether a fund is worth holding, nor does one strong month. Value Research Fund Advisor gives that verdict, fund by fund.
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