Topic: How To Invest

India Fund $19.58 – New York symbol IFN

INDIA FUND $19.58 (New York symbol IFN; Shares outstanding: 42.5 million; Market cap: $832.5 million; CWA Rating: Aggressive) invests mainly in large-capitalization Indian stocks. The manager of the fund is the Blackstone Group.

India’s growth has exceeded 9% annually over the last few years. The global slowdown and credit problems will hurt the Indian economy, but growth could still be as high as 7% in 2009.

India Fund’s top holdings are: Reliance Industries (conglomerate) at 13.1%; Bharti AirTel (telecom), 7.1%; Infosys Technologies (software), 6.9%; Housing Development Finance (finance), 4.5%; Oil & Natural Gas Corp., 4.0%; Hindustan Unilever (consumer products), 3.4%; State Bank of India, 2.9%; and Reliance Communications (telecom), 2.6%.

The main industry exposure of the stocks in the fund’s $2.1 billion portfolio is as follows: Finance, 18.8%; Petroleum related, 18.7%; Telecommunications, 10.8%; Computer software & programming, 10.5%; Industrial, 9.0%; Consumer non-durables, 7.7%; Electronics & electrical equipment, 6.3%; Vehicles & transportation, 5.7%; Pharmaceuticals, 5.3%; Food, 3.0%; Engineering, 2.4%; Chemicals, 1.0%; and Metals & mining, 0.6%.

We still like the long-term outlook for Indian stocks. However, India Fund now sells for a wide 12% premium above the value of its assets. That’s unreasonable, even given India’s prospects.

India Fund is a hold if you own it, but we advise against new buying.

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