Nippon India Nifty Midcap 150 Index Fund is an open-ended index fund tracking the Nifty Midcap 150 index – the second such fund after Motilal Oswal Nifty Midcap 150 Index Fund. The NFO period for the Nippon India fund begins Feb 4 and lasts until  Feb 12th 2021. What is the Nifty Midcap 150 Index?  Out…

Nippon India Nifty 50 Value 20 Index Fund is an open-ended passive fund that will track the Nifty 50 Value 20 Index. The NFO period of this fund is from Feb 4th to Feb 12th 2021. This article looks at the risk and reward of the underlying index and answers if it makes sense to…

There are currently 32 index funds with at least one-year history as on Jan 28th 2021. If we compare their one-year trailing returns with the respective benchmark (total return indices), six index funds are outperforming! That is, their one-year return is higher than than the one-year index return! Why does this happen? Although the stocks…

To aid active multi-cap funds to benchmark themselves after SEBI changed their asset-allocation pattern, NSE has launched a new index from Dec 2nd 2020, the Nifty500 Multicap 50:25:25 Index. In this article, we review the performance of this index. Since the index is new, the entire historical data  (from 1st April 2005) is based on…

It is now possible for retail investors in India to directly buy US stocks. One question that is now becoming popular among the investor community is, “can I buy US stocks (in particular US tech stocks) directly instead of investing in a US index like Nasdaq 100 or S & P 500?” SEBI registered fee-only advisor Avinash Luthria…

We shall look at the tracking error of Nifty Next 50 index funds from our tracking error report sheet to find out funds that have lowest tracking error. You can download this sheet to appreciate deviations from the benchmark in an intuitive way. In our previous study on how a market crash affects index funds,…

In this article, we show how the NAV of an index fund or the price of an ETF is affected by a market crash and discuss a simple, effective way to measure tracking error. That is how well the fund or ETF was able to track the underlying total returns index. Textbooks define tracking error…

Ranjith writes, “Thanks to your articles I have started my investment journey with Nifty 50 and Nifty Next 50 index funds. Should I also start a SIP in a Nifty Midcap 150 index fund for wider market coverage?”. Let us find out if this has been worth the effort in the past. From the point…

A common question investors have is, “should I use the Nifty or the Sensex for passive investing?” In this article, we report the return difference between the Sensex and Nifty for various durations to appreciate how a 30 stock index can differ from a 50 stock index. Sensex is the oldest stock index of India….

In this article, we present results from an analysis of the NIfty 50 portfolio over the last ten years. We find that the weight of the top five stock is currently the highest and six stocks dominate the top five positions. We use the portfolio of Nippon India ETF Nifty BeEs as a proxy for…

A combination of Nifty (N50) and Nifty Next 50 (NN50) index funds is enough for investors to create a well-diversified equity portfolio – large cap heavy (more of Nifty) or a midcap-heavy (significant exposure to Nifty Next 50). What if one avoids Nifty and invests 50% in Nifty Next 50 and 50% in debt? This…