Bharat 22 - Equity Traded Fund ETF Launched

New Delhi, Aug 5: A new initiative was launched yesterday. Arun Jaitley Finance Minister on Friday has announced the launch of a new Bharat 22-Exchange-Traded fund (ETF).

Minister has said that the ETF comprises of 22 companies involving 6 different sectors. The following sectors are comprised in the fund
* Energy
* Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG)
* Finance
* Basic materials
* Industrial
* Utilities
Finance Minister has said we have undertaken some reforms in the above sectors and we will soon undertake more reforms in the future.

Some of the companies involved in the ETF are
# ONGC
# IOC
# ITC
# SBI
# Axis Bank
# Bharat Electronics
# Engineers India
# NBCC
# NTPC
# NHPC
# SJVNL
# GAIL
# PGCIL
# NLC India.
# ITC
# L&T
# Indian Bank
# Bank of Baroda



Sources say that ICICI Prudential AMC will be the ETF manager and Asia Index Private Limited will be the Index provider.Experts say that Bharat 22 ETF is much broader than earlier launched CPSE ETF.

ETF is similar to a mutual fund scheme but its units are traded on the stock exchange.Sources say that the government would use the newly launched fund to disinvest some of its shares in CPSE and SUUTI (Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India) so that government
stake in PSU banks can reduce its shares to 52 percent.

Jaitley has also said that ETF investment is less risky and provides liquid assets which are traded real time and is a transparent mode of investment.

Minister has also stated that “Globally ETF assets have grown significantly, with around $4 trillion worth Assets Under Management (AUM). These are expected to touch $7 trillion by 2021. Large Investors (Sovereign/Pension Funds) prefer investing in ETFs".

Finally, The minister has hoped that the new ETF launched would be fairly successful.