Mutual fund draft NFOs touch 125 so far this year

With just two months to go for the year-end, draft papers for nearly 125 mutual fund schemes have been filed by asset management companies with Sebi so far in 2019, much lower than 211 such documents submitted in entire 2018. Fund houses attributed the fewer NFOs (new fund offers) in 2019 to tepid investors' sentiment and liquidity crisis in debt funds.

Fixed maturity plan, exchange traded fund (ETF), retirement, sustainable equity fund and business cycle fund are some of the themes for which the mutual fund houses have filed the applications. Interestingly, many mutual fund companies are also looking at index funds and global funds.

The draft documents for 125 NFOs have been submitted with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) so far in 2019 (till October 31), according to the markets regulator.


Of these, some of the schemes have already been launched after getting regulatory clearances.

“We have seen the trends from past as well as that the number of NFOs are higher when the markets are good and lower when sentiments are bad,” said Omkeshwar Singh, head of mutual fund distribution business at Samco.