IISL launches Nifty equity savings index

The NSE's arm India Index Services & Products Ltd (IISL) today launched Nifty equity savings index that will serve as a benchmark for equity saving funds offered by various mutual funds.

Similar to the investment philosophy of equity savings funds, this index will capture the performance of a portfolio having exposure to equity, equity arbitrage and debt instruments, IISL said in a statement.

"The newly-launched Nifty equity savings index appropriately fills the gap that was there due to the absence of a relevant benchmark for performance comparison of the popular equity savings funds category offered by mutual funds in India," IISL CEO Mukesh Agarwal said.

It is a total return index capturing price return and dividend or coupon income.

The index components are 30 per cent exposure to Nifty 50 total return index; 30 per cent exposure to equity arbitrage (long position in Nifty 50 total return index and equivalent short position in Nifty 50 futures Index); 30 per cent exposure to Nifty short duration debt index; and 5 per cent exposure to Nifty 1D rate index.

The base date for the index is April 1, 2005 and base value is 1,000. The index is calculated on an end-of-day basis.