After writing about the IIFL Nifty ETF last week – I realized that the Nifty index fund list needs to be updated as there are a few more index funds based on the Nifty that have been launched since then.
I started researching Nifty ETFs and mutual funds in India, and found that there were indeed quite a few. Goldman Sachs Nifty ETF is by far the biggest one in them at assets under management of about Rs. 650 crores or Rs. 6.5 billion, and that also shows that Index funds or Index ETFs have not really caught on in India.
In fact some Nifty index funds are really struggling with the Quantum Index fund and Taurus Index Nifty fund managing funds of just over a crore.
The competition in this space is quite intense and that has led to lowering of costs but I still see a lot of index funds charging over a percent and there is really no reason to opt for them at all.
Here is a chart of the assets under management of the various funds.
As you can see Goldman Sachs Nifty Index Fund is ahead by a big margin, but if you look at the returns of these funds then you will see that the returns are not that different because all of them track the same index and are invested similarly.
Here is a chart that shows their returns for the last 3 years.
As you can see Quantum did the best, and Goldman Sachs Nifty BeeS came a close second. When you compare the returns data with the volumes data – GS Nifty BeeS comes out to be a pretty good option in this space.
The only other thing of interest in these index funds and ETFs are the expense ratio, and instead of a separate chart – I will include it here in this table that has all of the above data as well.
Mutual Fund | 3 Year Return | AUM (In Rs. Crores) | Expense Ratio |
Franklin India Index Fund – NSE Nifty Plan – Growth | 14.69 | 134.71 | 1% |
UTI Nifty Index Fund – Growth | 14.33 | 186.9 | 1.50% |
Tata Index Fund – NIFTY – Option A | 14.12 | 8.98 | 1.50% |
HDFC Index Fund – Nifty Plan | 13.55 | 68.8 | 1.00% |
Nifty Benchmark Exchange Traded Scheme – Nifty BeES | 15.39 | 652.21 | 0.50% |
LIC Index Fund – Nifty Plan | 13.15 | 30.85 | 1.16% |
IDBI Nifty Index Fund – Growth | – | 134.93 | 1.50% |
Taurus Nifty Index Fund – Growth | – | 1.32 | 1.50% |
Reliance Index Fund – Nifty Plan – Growth | – | 62.45 | 0.40% |
ICICI Prudential Index Fund | – | 90.36 | 1.50% |
Quantum Index | 15.4 | 1.53 | 0.50% |
Canara Robeco Index | 14.86 | 4.47 | 1% |
Principal Index | 14.15 | 15.76 | 1% |
Birla Sunlife Index | – | 7.08 | |
IDFC Index Fund | – | 10.92 | 0.25 |
Kotak Nifty | – | 106.91 | 0.5 |
ING Nifty Plus Fund – Growth | – | – | – |
Magnum Index | – | – | – |
All the data has been sourced from Value Research, and I will continue to update this list from time to time. If you know of any fund that is missing here then please let me know and I will update that information as well.
Hi Manshu,
I have some fixed amount monthly that i can invest for next 10 years. What would you say – go for Recurring Deposits or start an Nifty ETF SIP ?
Thanks in advance
Time to refresh this, esp. with the advent of direct plans.
ICICIDirect is a broking entity
Hi Mansu,
I wanted to check is it possible to set up a SIP for NIFTY BEES, i tried calling up GS and they said that i need to directly buy from my stock broker, i cant set up a SIP for nifty Bees?
I have an SIP for Nifty BeES through icicidirect.
Any latest updates? I am thinking of investing currently. Is GS still the best option?
Please also give exit load.
ETFs don’t have exit loads and most of the other funds won’t have any exit loads after a year and that’s why I didn’t give them much importance and left them out of the table. I don’t see much value in adding them to the table even now. Sorry!
Chand, I would quickly comment on the first part of your question. Goldman Sachs S&P CNX 500 Fund is the answer to your question. This is an index fund ( Mutual Fund). For now there is no ETF that tracks this index.
Thanks.
Ashish, are you sure it is 500 and not S&P CNX Nifty? their top 10 holdings account for 57% of the asset.
This is the fund that Ashish is talking about
http://www.benchmarkfunds.com/Products/SNPCNX500/Overview.aspx
I think there must be bond funds like that but I’m not aware of them.
Thanks Manshu and Ashish.
On a side note, 1.5% ER!! what the hell! I think I should start an index fund with 0.5% expense ratio.
That’s oddly high since these are the guys that have one of the lower cost Nifty ETFs at 0.5% as well.
But hey, looks like there is a market for low cost broader index funds! 🙂
Well 1% adds up over long period. Now my dilemma is whether to go for the Nifty one with .5% which has 1/2 of the capitalization of the 500 one with only 50 stocks. Or, probably I will just stick to NPS for the index investing.
For this diff in cost and volumes – there is no way that I’d choose 500 over Nifty.
Hi Manshu,
Do you know of any index fund (MF or ETF) that tracks BSE500 or S&P CNX Nifty 500? Also, any fund that tracks the intermediate term bond market?
Thanks.
I guess GS = Nifty Bees.
In that case. expense ratio is 0.5% / year.
http://www.benchmarkfunds.com/Products/NiftyBeES/Overview.aspx
Which is what’s there in the table too right? What’s your point?
Hi Manshu,
After including the transactions costs (buy or sell) for GS NIFTY BEES, can u plz suggest which one is good to buy from these above index funds which have less tracking errors and less expense ratio (this to be counted in return).
I can’t do that because the transaction costs are all different and based on how much quantity you buy and where you buy it from makes a difference. I would say compare the costs of the two platforms you have access to with respect to how much money you are going to spend and then see which one is cheaper.
That should be good enough – in the end the difference between two index funds is not going to be much, the big difference in returns will be made by your decision to invest or not invest in equities – so proceed with that in mind.
Will be a good idea to have tracking error as well. Tracking error along with the expense ratio will help pick the most efficient index fund.
That is a good suggestion and I’ll see how easily available that information is to use it here.
Hi Manshu:
The expense ratio of IDFC Index Fund is 1.5% and not 0.25%.
See http://www.idfcmf.com/downloads/Sid/OP/Nifty-Fund.pdf
– Mukesh
Hi Mukesh,
Value Research shows this to be 0.25% and I couldn’t quite find the expense ratio in the latest documents that IDFC has filed. I know that sometimes the fund declares an expense ratio at the time of launch, which then comes down. As this is a 2010 document – that might be the case.
I’d like to research this a little more before changing the number to 1.5% because normally I’ve found Value Research data to be quite reliable, and they may have some more recent numbers that I couldn’t find.
Many thanks for pointing this out though.
You are right. The expense ratio seems to have been updated recently by IDFC.
http://www.idfcmf.com/downloads/Exp-ratios-for-updation.xls
This makes it the least expensive Nifty fund.
Thanks for looking that up Mukesh! – This is the type of doc I was looking for yesterday but couldn’t find it.
Can you also post a similar article on Sensex ETF and the difference of return they have given over the period of time. This will help to identify which is better (atleast in the past 🙂 )
Sure, that’s a great idea – will try to do a post on that next week.
Manshu
What is the best method to buy these funds? Typical trading accounts have brokerage for both buy and sell side of the transaction. Are you aware of other schedule if say I want to start an SIP on these stocks?
After looking at your comment I realized that I haven’t broken these funds into ETFs and mutual funds. I should have probably done that as well. For ETFs, yeah the commission is there, that’s the only way to buy stocks or ETFs.
For funds you can buy them direct and avoid commissions.
Why is Goldman Sachs Nifty Index Fund not in the above table?
GS in the charts and Nifty BeeS in the table is the Goldman fund Prashant.
Hi Manshu,
Thanks for the informative post. A basic question about these ETFs – how is the expense ratio charged to buyers? When I buy these from my online trading account, I only see the brokerage and taxes, but there’s no information about the expense ratio as such.
Hi Saurabh – They get adjusted in the NAV and are then reflected in the trading price, so you will never see the direct impact, but it works to lower the unit value indirectly.
Manshu – would you know if these returns post the expense ratio or does not take that into account? If they dont then the graphs will look different 🙂
Yes, they take the expenses in account.