'International funds offer exposure and diversification opportunities to investors'

In the latest episode of, 'Mutual Fund Corner' - Santosh Joseph, Founder and Partner at Germinate Investor Svcs LLP discussed about international funds. This is a good time to talk about international funds considering China's re-opening play after their zero-COVID policy. Additionally, most Indian equity funds investing in overseas markets have once again opened up accepting funds from domestic investors after nearly a year of regulatory limitations.

For the uninitiated, international funds are mutual funds that invest in companies based outside of the country where the fund's investors are based.

Talking about its advantages, Joseph said, “The entire India opportunity to the domestic opportunity is about 3-3.50 percent of the global opportunity. We have to invest in equities. The minute you start looking beyond your borders, or beyond the domestic market, you get a vast canvas to consider to invest and that is the first exposure opportunity.”

The second opportunity is diversification.

According to Joseph, investors can put their money in more places than just the local market.

"So it's a win-win in many cases as you get a larger exposure to the true equity market across the world. You can diversify your portfolio and you also get to benefit from the currency," Joseph said.