"A Fund Affair" is a brand new column that focuses on mutual funds available in Asia. Each week, we will highlight one fund we think is interesting -- whether because it's invested in a hot market, has a niche appeal or simply has been in the news of late.
Our inaugural column features the Aberdeen Asset Management's India Opportunities Fund. Why this fund? A hot topic of debate of late has been the outsourcing of business processes to India. India's benefited from these many contracts. So we decided to explore what India and its economy has to offer the investor and how well Indian companies have performed of late.
There is much value to be found in India, especially if one is willing to invest for the long run, which is very much Aberdeen's philosophy. India is on the cutting edge of the information technology sector, setting the standards for business process outsourcing and even entering the major league of mature industries like Tata Steel's purchase of the United Kingdom's Corus.
Economic growth over the past four years has averaged over 8% annually and in that same period, the stock market has risen more than fourfold. In 2006 alone, the benchmark Bombay Sensitive Index tacked on a whopping 46%.