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BANGALORE, May 16

SUN F&C Asset Management (I) Pvt Ltd plans to increase its asset under management to Rs 1,300 crore from the current base of Rs 850 crore in a year's time through new schemes and deepening of existing ones, CEO, Mr Nikhil Khattau, said here on Wednesday.

However, he declined to comment on a report that Sun F&C is likely to buy JF Asset Management's two schemes of asset base Rs 205 crore.

The company plans to launch four new schemes in debt and money market instruments in near future.

Of these, one will be an international plan, which seeks to invest in rated debt securities, Government papers and money market instruments in overseas markets. The other three debt schemes are of different time-spans, each catering to the different risk-appetites of the investors.

"We believe that interest rates to be fairly range-bound though movements could be very drastic in the short-term in the Government securities market,'' Mr Milind Nandurkar, Fund Manager, said. However, if yields on 10-year Government papers drop below seven per cent, "it is going to be very difficult,'' he added.

Though, fundamentally Sun F&C remains bullish on the equities market, the current political turbulences could keep the sentiment depressed in the near term. Mr Khattau said. "We would like to see more funds flowing into equities,'' Mr Khattau said, adding that retail participation is likely to happen only when the Sensex breaches 4000-4500 mark. Sun F&C, which has invested its assets equally into debt and equities, remains overweight on the domestic technology sector, with favourable picks on the large-cap companies. The fund has also rated pharmaceuticals and cement sector as "overweight''.

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