As one of the world’s largest economies, India has much to offer investors. Besides diverse offerings, India has the key traits that make emerging markets attractive, such as growth prospects and decent valuations. The country is known for its numerous industrial zones and a young and hungry workforce that is itself an emerging consumer class to reckon with.
Over the past two decades, India’s stock market has outperformed developed and emerging markets. Asset manager NS Partners has been able to capitalise on these trends. Its India Equities Portfolio II I USD Acc fund, a sub-fund of RAMS Investment Unit Trust, made it to the top three in this year’s Best Funds Awards 2024 by The Edge Singapore, under the category of global broad category-equity fund below US$1 billion ($1.36 billion).
This product is a class of units of the sub-fund denominated in USD. The larger fund is an open-ended umbrella-type unit trust that qualifies as an undertaking for collective investments in transferable securities under the European Communities.
As described by the manager, the main objective of this sub-fund is to provide long-term capital appreciation primarily through equity and equity-related investments of companies established in or operating in India.
It seeks long-term capital growth through a well-diversified portfolio of investments in shares of companies listed on a major stock exchange or other regulated market in India and companies that carry out a substantial part of their business activities in India.
The investment strategy focuses on value stocks that are fundamentally underpriced with reasonable growth expectations; companies with good earnings growth trajectory, high ROEs, good-quality management and high operating leverage; and companies benefiting from the strong GDP growth in India and elsewhere, managed by passionate and dynamic management.
See also: Towards a flourishing fund management industry
The top five sectors that the sub-fund invests in are financial services (31.4%), technology (12.8%), consumer cycle (11.8%), industrials (10.7%) and consumer defensive (7.4%). Other industries make up 25.9% of the portfolio.
As of April 16, the sub-fund’s size is GBP236.2 million ($400.2 million). Its top five holdings are Reliance Industries, Infosys, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Bajaj Finserv, representing 25.88% of the total portfolio holdings.
