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  A closed-end fund is an exchange listed mutual fund which has a finite number of shares. The closed end fund shares have a net asset value (NAV) which is calculated daily. Although the break-up or liquidation value of the closed end fund will be the same as the NAV, the shares of the closed end fund trade up or down on the listing exchange based on market demand and trends.  Sometimes these can trade at a deep discount or premium to the NAV, although arbitrage activity has lessened this phenonmenon.  
 
The India Fund, Inc. (IFN)

Blackstone Group

The most well known of the closed end India funds trading in the US are the India Fund, Inc. (IFN) organized by The Blackstone Group.   In the last five years, The India Fund, Inc. has returned almost 500% excluding dividends:

IFN Returns

As discussed above, the IFN shares trade at a discount/premium to NAV:

IFN share price to nav

IFN premium/discount

The above two charts are reproduced from Nuveen Investments excellent site: www.etfconnect.com

Top 25 Holdings (as of 1/31/08) (% of Portfolio)

  1. Reliance Industries, Ltd.
  2. Infosys Technologies, Ltd.
  3. ICICI Bank, Ltd.
  4. Bharti Airtel, Ltd.
  5. Reliance Communication, Ltd.
  6. Housing Development Finance Corporation, Ltd.
  7. Bharat Heavy Electricals, Ltd.
  8. Jindal Steel & Power, Ltd.
  9. Oil & Natural Gas Corporation, Ltd.
10. HDFC Bank, Ltd.
11. State Bank of India, Ltd.
12. ITC, Ltd.
13. Sterlite Industries India, Ltd.
14. Satyam Computer Services
15. Kirloskar Cummins, Ltd.
16. Reliance Energy, Ltd.
17. JSW Steel, Ltd.
18. Larsen & Toubro, Ltd.
19. Steel Authority of India
20. Power Finance Corporation
21. Mahindra & Mahindra, Ltd.
22. Tata Steel, Ltd.
23. Infrastructure Development Finance
24. Hindustan Unilever, Ltd.
25. Grasim Industries, Ltd.

12.50%
5.18%
4.61%
4.53%
3.86%
3.82%
3.51%
3.43%
2.70%
1.79%
1.78%
1.63%
1.51%
1.36%
1.36%
1.34%
1.26%
1.18%
1.15%
1.13%
1.08%
1.07%
1.07%
1.06%
1.06%

Top Holdings (as % of Portfolio) 64.97%
Total Number of Holdings 118

Asset Allocation by Sector (as of 1/31/08)

IFN asset allocation

As of March of 2008, the India Fund has been managed by a seven person portfolio management team under the leadership of Punita Kumar-Sinha. Punita Kumar-Sinha is the Portfolio Manager and Chief Investment Officer for both the India Fund and The Asia Tigers Fund, and a Senior Managing Director of The Blackstone Group.
The India Fund has been under Ms. Kumar-Sinha’s supervision since July 31, 1997 and she started managing The Asia Tigers Fund on June 30, 1999. She has over seventeen years’ experience in fund management in international and emerging markets.
Prior to joining Blackstone, Ms. Kumar-Sinha was a Managing Director and Senior Portfolio Manager at Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc., and CIBC World Markets, where she was also the Fund Manager for the India Fund and The Asia Tigers Fund. Prior to that she was the Portfolio Manager on the emerging markets team at Batterymarch, which she joined after spending approximately four years at Standish Ayer and Wood. At Standish Ayer she developed country allocation models and strategies as part of the international equity management team as well as researched investments in Southeast Asia and other international markets.
While at graduate school, Ms. Kumar-Sinha interned at J.P. Morgan Investment Management and at the IFC's emerging markets index group. She also spent a year with the Latin American Department of the World Bank.
Ms. Kumar-Sinha has a PhD and a Masters in Finance from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. She received her undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. She has an MBA and is also a CFA Charterholder. Ms. Kumar-Sinha is a member of the CFA Institute, the Boston Security Analysts Society and the Council on Foreign Relations.

The Morgan Stanley India Investments Fund (IIF)

Morgan Stanley

Another well known US-listed India closed end stock fund is the Morgan Stanley India Investments Fund (IIF).

The Morgan Stanley India Fund was incorporated in 1993 and is managed by Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Inc.

In the last five years, the Morgan Stanley India Investment Fund has also returned nearly 500%:

Chart for Morgan Stanley India Investment Fund, Inc. (IIF)

As discussed above, the share price and the NAV are not always the same and the share price can trade at a discount/premium to the NAV based on market conditions:

IIF share price and nav

IIF premium/discount

The above two charts are reproduced from Nuveen Investments excellent site:  www.etfconnect.com

Top 10 Holdings as of 1/31/08 (% of Portfolio)

1. Reliance Industries Ltd 7.75
2. Hdfc Bank Ltd 6.88
3. ABB Ltd/India 5.21
4. Axis Bank Ltd 4.63
5. Larsen & Toubro Ltd 4.50
6. Aban Offshore Ltd 4.21
7. Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd 4.09
8. Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd 3.19
9. Bharti Airtel Ltd 3.10
10. Welspun-Gujarat Stahl Ltd 2.82

Asset Allocation by Sector (as of 1/31/08)

IIF asset allocation

The complete holdings for IIF as of 12/31/07 were:

ABB Ltd/India ABB
Aban Offshore Ltd ABAN
Apollo Tyres Ltd APTY
Axis Bank Ltd AXSB
Balkrishna Industries BIL
Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd BHEL
Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd BPCL
Bharti Airtel Ltd BHARTI
Biocon Ltd BIOS
Cairn India Ltd CAIR
Container Corp Of India CCRI
Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd DECH
Ess Dee Aluminium Ltd EDA
GVK Power & Infrastructure Ltd GVKP
Geodesic Information Systems Ltd BVH
Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd GNP
Gujarat Fluorochemicals GFLC
HCL Technologies Ltd HCLT
HDFC Bank Ltd HDFCB
HDFC Bank Ltd HDB
Hero Honda Motors Ltd HH
Hindustan Zinc Ltd HZ
ICI India Ltd ICI
India Cements Ltd ICEM
Infosys Technologies Ltd INFO
IDFC IDFC
Jaiprakash Associates Ltd JPA
Jyoti Structures Ltd JYS
Larsen & Toubro Ltd LT
Marico Ltd MRCO
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd MSIL
Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone MSEZ
Nestle India Ltd NEST
New Delhi Television Ltd NDTV
Pantaloon Retail India Ltd PF
Phoenix Mills Ltd PHNX
Praj Industries Ltd PRJ
Reliance Communications Ltd RCOM
Reliance Industries Ltd RIL
Sesa GOA Ltd SESA
Shree Cement Ltd SRCM
Steel Authority Of India Ltd SAIL
Tata Power Co Ltd TPWR
Television Eighteen India Ltd TLEI
Welspun-Gujarat Stahl Ltd WGS
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Z

As of March 2008, the Morgan Stanley India Investment Fund (IIF) team was led by Ruchir Sharma, Managing Director.  Ruchir is head of the Global Emerging Markets Equity team and a member of the Global Tactical Asset Allocation Investment Committee. He joined Morgan Stanley in 1996 and has 14 years of investment experience. Prior to joining the firm, he worked with Prime Securities (Delhi), a non-banking financial services firm, where he helped run the firm''s foreign exchange business. Ruchir is a columnist withNewsweek and writes for publications such as The Wall Street Journal. He is also a contributor to The Economic Times, India's leading financial daily, and has been writing a regular column on global financial markets since 1991. Ruchir received a B.A. with honors in commerce from the Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi.
Shares in either of these funds can be purchased by you through your stock broker or financial advisor. For help in making an investment in one of the publicly traded closed end funds, please see our list of brokers.

 
     
   
 

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