Should US-Focused Mutual funds be part of your portfolio

The external value of Indian rupee (INR) is declining and is down by 6.9 per cent  against US Dollar, year till date. This has been one of the factor that has led to a fall in the Indian equity market. Nevertheless, this has a silver lining and you can invest in funds that invest in US-Focused funds that will help you reap good returns.

Being invested in dollar-based assets will protect your portfolio from the rupee depreciation. There are other international funds, however, falling rupee will benefit you if you invest in funds focused on US-based companies. Beside falling rupee, there are other benefits of investing in US-based companies through mutual funds. Some of the world class companies are domiciled and listed in US stock exchanges. You can get exposure to sectors that are not present in the domestic market.

Other factors that favour investment in US-focused funds is the low correlation of returns between US equity and Indian equity. In the last 12 years, the correlation between the CNX Nifty and S&P 500 index is below 0.3.

The performance of the US-Focused mutual funds for the last one year

Before investing in US-Focused funds you should know that since all the US-focused funds have more than 65 per cent of their portfolio invested in foreign funds or shares, they will be treated at par with debt funds for tax purposes in India. Which means you’ll need to stay invested for at least three years to avail of long-term capital gains benefit.

Moreover, for an ideal portfolio you should keep your allocation to such funds to not more than 10 per cent of your portfolio for the long term and when these funds deliver say 40-50 per cent you can book some profits and deploy in local funds