Axis Mutual Fund eyes Rs 100 cr from new equity ETF fund of funds

Axis Mutual Fund is targeting to collect Rs 100 crore from its new equity ETF fund of funds during the primary subscription period, which opens on February 4 and closes on 18.

The open-ended fund of fund scheme will predominantly invest in units of domestic equity ETFs and is looking to collect Rs 100 crore during the subscription period, Raghav Iyengar, chief business officer at the fund house, told PTI on Wednesday.

The fund will track the Nifty 500 stocks and will be managed by Shreyash Devalkar, the fund house said.

ETFs are one of the most popular vehicles of investing in passive strategies as they replicate the portfolio of the underlying index while trading in bite-sized units on an exchange at market prices. In the past three years, equity ETFs AUM has increased more than three times.

Since different sectors and market segments perform differently at different times, the new FoF's investment approach is designed to allocate dynamically across market cap and sectoral/ thematic passive strategies.

The scheme will endeavour to invest and maintain domestic ETF exposure greater than 95 per cent of net assets at all times.

Axis AMC Managing Director and CEO Chandresh Nigam said the new FoF will try to integrate market cap management and sectoral/ thematic management, thereby enabling active management of passive strategies.