Sundaram MF to launch banking, financial sector fund soon

TP Raman, MD, Sundaram MF AMC, said the fund house has been parking funds in defensive plays like FMCG, IT, and pharmaceuticals. It is bullish on the banking sector. "We are also going to be launching a banking and financial sector fund now."

A: All that we have tried to do over the last few weeks is to maintain between 8-10% or in some cases and about 11-12% depending upon the type of fund or the type of the stocks that we are own. We have been staying around that figure. We have not increased it significantly during the last few weeks.

A: The strategy has been to park some money into defensives, which have been less volatile and are probably looking very attractive also. We have been putting some money into defensives, so that was one way of doing things and that’s how it has been. We have allocated some money to the defensives, so as to prevent the downside and also the volatility.

A: Yes, FMCG, IT, and pharmaceuticals. We have been putting some money into all those which have been showing less volatility.

A: I would think so given that there are some measures that are being put in place to take care of the rupee so that it doesn’t appreciate by too much, given that the prospective change is a bit from what it was a few months ago or at least a couple of months ago. So, the story still looks very good. It is also showing a lot more immunity that what the other sectors have been showing, particularly in respect of these derivative segments. So, the general feeling seems to be that IT is looking good now. The rupee was the main concern. If that is being addressed and handled, it should look a little attractive now.

A: Selectively banks are still looking good. We are quite bullish on that sector. We have been quite keen on that sector for quite a while now and we are also going to be launching a banking and financial sector fund now. We are following the sector very carefully and watching it quite closely at that.

A: In December, we were around Rs 13,000 crore. We are around Rs 14,000 crore right now. Particularly in the last week of March, we dipped a bit because there were some redemption from money funds and the liquid segment, but then that money has come back in the last few days. So, we are continuing to stay around Rs 14,000 crore now, of which about Rs 9,000 crore is equity.

A: Within a couple of weeks, we are looking at launching it. We are just waiting for a little bit more stability in the market and we will watch for the next few days. Probably the third week of April is when we are looking at launching these funds together.

A: Not particularly. They have very powerful themes. One is the banking and the financial sector and the other is the entertainment and media sector. We would leave it to the distributors to look at what call they would like to take but then we know that we can get some decent sums. We are not hung on any particular size or chasing a particular target for these funds because these both are open-ended funds, so we have no issue on that.