You can now invest in the Nasdaq through Motilal Oswal Nasdaq 100 fund-of-fund (FoF). Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund has initiated a new fund offer (NFO) of the Motilal Oswal Nasdaq 100 Fund of Fund (MOFN100FOF), which will start on 9th November 2018 and end on 22nd November 2018. The NFO for this scheme follows the SEBI filing by the AMC (Asset Management Company) on 12th September 2018. The scheme will operate as an open-ended fund-of-fund (FoF) which allows investors to invest in or redeem investments on all business days. The scheme will allow domestic investors to participate and benefit from the US-based Nasdaq index. You can invest in the FoF in Indian rupees but the fund’s holdings will be denominated in US dollars, allowing you to benefit from rupee depreciation.
Motilal Oswal already has an ETF called the MOST Nasdaq 100 ETF. This FoF will primarily invest in Motilal Oswal Nasdaq ETF. However a trading and demat account is mandatory in case you want to invest in an ETF which is not the case when investing in an FoF. Investors without such accounts can now get access to the Nasdaq 100 through Motilal Oswal 100 fund-of-fund (FoF).
At least 95% of the assets of Motilal Oswal Nasdaq 100 Fund of Fund will be invested in the Motilal Oswal Nasdaq 100 ETF. Additionally, up to 5% of scheme assets may be invested in G-Secs, money market instruments, cash/cash at call, units of debt/liquid schemes and various debt investments as per SEBI guidelines. This scheme is however not allowed to invest in repo and short selling of corporate debt, foreign securities, Global Depositary Receipt (GDR), American Depositary Receipt (ADR) and securitized debt.
NASDAQ 100, the US-based tech heavy index, will be used to benchmark the performance of the Motilal Oswal Nasdaq 100 Fund of Fund. This is the same index which is tracked by Motilal Oswal Nasdaq 100 ETF, which makes it an appropriate benchmark for this scheme. As of 28th October 2018, the 1 year, 3 year and 5 year returns of this scheme were recorded at 28.91%, 18.13% and 27.52% respectively. In terms of sector weightage, this index has allocated over 55% weight to the technology sector with consumer goods (25%) and healthcare (10%) emerging as the other key sectors. Some of the top stocks on NASDAQ 100 are Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook.
Motilal Oswal Nasdaq 100 Fund of Fund will be co-managed by Abhiroop Mukherjee and Ashish Agrawal. As part of a team or individually, they also manage other schemes of Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund including Motilal Oswal Ultra Short Term Fund, Motilal Oswal Multicap 35 Fund and Motilal Oswal Midcap 100 ETF. Even though the fund manager’s ability to impact performance of a passively managed scheme such as an ETF is limited, the Motilal Oswal Midcap 100 ETF has emerged as one of the top performers in its category with returns of 17.46% for the 5 year period (as of 6th November 2018).
Key Information about the Motilal Oswal Nasdaq 100 Fund of Fund:
| NFO Period | 9th November to 22nd November 2018 |
| Minimum Investment for NFO | Rs. 500 |
| Benchmark | Nasdaq 100 |
| Fund Managers | Ashish Agrawal and Abhiroop Mukherjee |
Other Funds by Motilal Oswal Asset Management
| Scheme Name | 3Y Returns (%) | AUM(Rs. Cr.) | Category |
| Motilal Oswal Long Term Equity Fund | 12.94 | 1044.84 | ELSS |
| Motilal Oswal Multicap 35 Fund | 9.83 | 13131.17 | Multi Cap Fund |
| Motilal Oswal Focused 25 Fund | 12.59 | 1079.59 | Large Cap Fund |
| Motilal Oswal Midcap 30 Fund | 9.34 | 1333.36 | Mid Cap Fund |
| Motilal Oswal Ultra Short Term Fund | 1.23 | 966.51 | Ultra Short Duration Fund |
| Motilal Oswal Dynamic Fund | 10.27 | 1745.1 | Dynamic Asset Allocation |
{Data as on Feb 20, 2020; Source: Value Research}