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Summary: For weeks, only one of India's 60 international funds would take your lump sum. This week, six more reopen, though three shut the same day again. That leaves four. And the ETF standing in for US stocks halved in three days as its shares rose, yet still costs 68 per cent more than it's worth.
Until September 23, if you wanted to put a lump sum into an international fund, you had one option. One. Out of 60.
That was Baroda BNP Paribas Aqua, a global water-theme fund. Now that's changing. Aditya Birla Sun Life reopened three funds on September 24, then shut them again at the close of business hours the same day. Invesco reopens three more on September 28. That makes four.
International funds open for lumpsums and new SIPs
| Fund / Invests in | Open from | Limit per PAN per day | 1Y | 3Y | 5Y |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baroda BNP Paribas Aqua FoFGlobal water theme | Sep 1 | None stated | 9.9 | 15.5 | 8.2 |
| Invesco India Global Equity Income FoFGlobal dividend payers | Sep 28 | Rs 10 lakh | 18.4 | 23.2 | 17.4 |
| Invesco India Pan European Equity FoFLarge European companies | Sep 28 | Rs 10 lakh | 30.9 | 21.3 | 15.6 |
| Invesco India Global Consumer Trends FoFGlobal consumer companies | Sep 28 | Rs 10 lakh | -4.8 | 25.2 | 5.3 |
| Direct plans. Returns in per cent as on September 23 and subscription status as on September 24, 2026 | |||||
But none of them is US-focused. So why do these funds keep shutting? And what happens when you try the other route, an ETF? Let's understand.
The box office
Think of a mutual fund as a cinema box office. It sells tickets (units) at face value. That face value is the NAV, or what the shares inside are worth per unit.
Usually, it never runs out of tickets. But Indian funds can invest only $7 billion abroad in total, and each fund house gets a slice. Once its slice fills, the box office shuts. It reopens only when investors cash out, and it can shut again fast. ABSL’s shut within a day, even within a cap of Rs Rs 1 crore per PAN per day. Invesco’s cap is Rs 10 lakh.
The resale counter
An ETF works differently. You buy it on the stock exchange, from another investor. Think of it as a resale counter outside the cinema.
Normally, traders called market makers keep the price near NAV. When it climbs, they buy fresh units from the fund house and sell them on the exchange. For international ETFs, that route has been shut since April 2024. With supply fixed, the price floats above NAV. That gap is the premium: what you pay over what the shares are worth.
When the guardrail moved
A price band, a daily limit on moves, used to keep the premium in check. It sat 20 per cent either side of the NAV from two days earlier, so the price couldn't stray far from value.
From September 7, SEBI drew the band around the previous day's price instead.
That sounds small. It wasn't. If each day's limit is set off yesterday's price, the premium can compound. Between September 4 and 18, the Motilal Oswal Nasdaq Q50 ETF's premium went from 19.5 to 235 per cent.
And then it reversed
But a band that lets prices climb fast lets them fall fast too.
On September 21, the Q50 first rose to Rs 471.99, near its upper limit. By 1:08 pm, it had hit the lower limit of Rs 317.04. It then fell the full 20 per cent three days running, from Rs 396.30 on September 18 to Rs 202.92.
Now, here's the thing. Nothing changed inside the fund. Its shares rose 2 per cent over those days. What changed was the trading: Rs 159 crore of units changed hands on September 21, against about Rs 1.4 crore on a normal day.
Halved isn't cheap
At Rs 202.92, the Q50 still trades 68 per cent above its NAV of Rs 120.59. So Rs 100 of shares costs you Rs 168.
Before the rule change, its premium averaged about 15 per cent. Today's is over four times that. Erase it, and the price falls another 40 per cent, even if the shares don't move.
Off the peak, still far above value
| ETF | NAV (Rs) | Price (Rs) | Prem. Sep 18 (%) | Prem. Sep 23 (%) | Avg prem. (%) | Avg daily trading (Rs cr) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Motilal Oswal Nasdaq Q50 | 120.59 | 202.92 | 235.5 | 68.3 | 14.8 | 1.4 |
| Mirae Asset S&P 500 Top 50 | 68.53 | 97.56 | 83.4 | 42.4 | 19.5 | 1.5 |
| Mirae Asset NYSE FANG+ | 180.31 | 234.14 | 40.5 | 29.9 | 19.7 | 5.6 |
| Mirae Asset Hang Seng TECH | 18 | 21.86 | 20.3 | 21.5 | 19.7 | 2.4 |
| Motilal Oswal NASDAQ 100 | 285.15 | 327.37 | 18.9 | 14.8 | 11 | 23.5 |
| Nippon India Hang Seng BeES | 451.53 | 461.52 | 2.8 | 2.2 | 14.4 | 8.1 |
| NSE close over same-day NAV, as on September 23, 2026. Averages: September 10, 2025 to September 3, 2026. | ||||||
So what now?
Before you buy any ETF, check its price against its NAV. The gap is what you pay on top of the shares inside. If you own a fund of funds that holds an ETF, the same gap can be sitting in its NAV.
SEBI plans to anchor the band to the previous day's NAV from April 1, 2027, once systems are ready. Until then, the price can swing 20 per cent a day either way. We don't know which.
What we do know: an open fund may not stay open, and isn’t necessarily one worth investing in. Value Research Fund Advisor tells you which funds belong in your portfolio and plans the rest around your goals.
Ask Value Research 
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