IndianMascot
Core Member
Marking its maiden entry into stock market, retirement fund body EPFO today announced its first equity investment through Exchange Traded Funds benchmarked to key indices Sensex and Nifty and promised to invest more than the current limit of Rs 5,000 crore from the next year.
The first investment, announced here by Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya in the presence of top market participants, would be made through SBI Mutual Fund’s two index linked ETFs — one to the BSE’s Sensex and the other to NSE’s Nifty.
The minister said Employment Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) will initially put only 5 per cent of its incremental fund flow, which would be around Rs 5,000 crore, but the cap could be increased to 15 per cent next year.
The return from the ETF investment will be more than the 8.75 per cent the EPFO offers to subscribers now, he said.
“We expect that the return be given to 4.67 crore subscribers of EPFO, which started investing 5 per cent of its incremental fund of Rs 1,00,000 crore, to be more than the existing return of 8.75 per cent,” the minister told reporters after making a formal announcement here today.