DSP Merrill Lynch offers new small, mid cap fund

Mumbai, Sep 25: After a lull of two years, DSP Merrill Lynch Fund Managers today announced the launch of DSP Merrill Small and Mid Cap Fund, an open-ended equity growth schemes with a portfolio constructed primarily of securities of small and mid cap companies.

The new fund offer (NFO) period of the scheme will commence tomorrow and close on October 16. The company expects a revenue collection to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore from the launch of its new fund.

Briefing mediaperson here, the President and Chief Investment Officer of the company, S Naganath, said that the capital markets were undergoing a scale shift. However, several companies in the small and mid category have yet to benefit from this structural change and DSP Merrill Lynch Small&Mid Cap Fund will seek to identify and capitalise on such opportunities, he added.

It comes at a time when small and mid cap indices, after outperforming the large cap indices in the long term , have underperformed in the recent past. Hence the principle of 'buy low, sell high' fits well for the investors, said Senior Vice President and Fund Manager, Soumendra Nath Lahiri.

Later talking to UNI, he said that the idea behind the launch was it completes our product portfolio. Today opportunities lie in the mid cap, what with the host of BPOs coming to India and the government's focusing its attention on things like better roads, better infrastructure and others, he added.

UNI