Uti Proposes Awareness Campaign For Investors

The Unit Trust of India is planning to launch a few fresh pure equity schemes. According to UTI officials, the trust has decided to launch a comprehensive investor-education campaign instead.

"We have a couple of new schemes on the anvil. However, there is hardly any investor-appetite in India for pure equity schemes. We have realised in our internal survey that the investor does not understand the importance of capital appreciation through equity," UTI executive director A N Palwankar told Business Standard.

UTI move to curtail launch of equity schemes domestically is significant considering the fact that it alone constitutes 85 per cent of the mutual fund industry.

 

"Before we launch any equity schemes, we plan to educate the investor through fresh campaigns about benefits regarding equity schemes. We have invited bids from various advertising agencies for the comprehensive campaign we intend to launch," he said. The package includes programmes for investors, intermediaries and agents across the country.

Palwankar said that during 1998-98, UTI plans to concentrate on its existing open-ended equity schemes. However, in the second half of the year, UTI may consider launching a few sector specific schemes taking into account the investor appetite.

"We are toying with the idea of launching a domestic sector-specific fund for PSU stocks. There is a desire for sector-specific stocks. FMCG stocks fund may be the next in line," he said.

UTI has already received a clearance from Sebi for the Banking and Technology Fund. "The banking and technology fund will be the test case for our future sector-specific funds. The plan for equity-linked schemes depends on the response to this scheme," he added.

Palwankar is of the view that the campaign launched by UTI may not yield results in the current financial year. "We believe that it will take some time before the investor-education campaign produces any result. We understand from surveys conducted earlier that the investor hardly knows anything about a pure equity mutual fund. The negative impression in the investor's mind is resulting in him refraining from pure equity schemes," he said.