LIC Mutual Fund launches new scheme

LIC Mutual Fund on Friday launched a new Manufacturing Fund, an open-ended equity scheme following the manufacturing theme.

The new fund offer (NFO) will remain open for subscription till October 4 while the units under the scheme would be allotted on October 11, the company said. It also said that the scheme will be benchmarked to the Nifty India Manufacturing Index (Total Return Index).

"India's robust GDP growth, rapid urbanization, the growing middle-class population, the government's export incentives and policy initiatives like PLI scheme and 'Make-in-India' are driving demand for manufactured goods," said R K Jha, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, LIC Mutual Fund.

"Consequently, the country is largely being developed as a manufacturing hub for the world. Further, manufacturing has a major role to play in making India a USD 5-trillion economy by 2027. As a result, the investors in the manufacturing theme may benefit from the current positive outlook for the constituent sectors," Jha said at the launch of the manufacturing fund.

The scheme aims to provide a diversified portfolio of companies that come under the ambit of manufacturing theme, including automobiles, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, heavy engineering products, metals, shipbuilding, and petroleum products, among others, the company said.

The investment objective of the scheme is to achieve long-term capital appreciation by predominantly investing in equity and equity-related instruments of companies following manufacturing theme, it said.

LIC Mutual Fund, however, added that there is no assurance that the investment objective of the scheme will be achieved.