ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund Launches Contra Fund; NFO Closes October 12

Key Takeaways

• ICICI Prudential Contra Fund opened for subscription on September 28 and is scheduled to close on October 12, 2026.
• The scheme follows a contrarian investment strategy and can invest across market capitalisations.
• The minimum application amount during the NFO is ₹1,000.

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund has launched the ICICI Prudential Contra Fund, an open-ended equity scheme built around a contrarian investment strategy.

The New Fund Offer opened on September 28, 2026 and is scheduled to close on October 12. Investors can apply with a minimum investment of ₹1,000 during the NFO period.

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A contrarian strategy generally looks for opportunities where the fund manager's assessment differs from prevailing market expectations. This can include businesses or sectors that have fallen out of favour but where the investment team identifies a gap between market pricing and its assessment of longer-term fundamentals.

The scheme will use a research-driven process to identify such non-consensus opportunities.

Fund Can Invest Across Market Capitalisations

The fund is not restricted to a single market-cap segment and can allocate across large-, mid- and small-cap companies.

The scheme also permits limited exposure outside conventional equities, including debt and money-market instruments and other permitted assets under its investment mandate.

The investment strategy means the portfolio may at times differ materially from broader market positioning, since securities selected on a contrarian basis may remain out of favour for extended periods before the investment thesis plays out—or may not recover as expected.

ICICI Prudential's launch adds another strategy-specific equity product to a busy NFO calendar at the end of September.

The offer is one of several mutual fund launches scheduled to close on October 12, alongside Mirae Asset Life Cycle Fund 2056, WhiteOak Capital Diversified Equity Small Cap Active FoF and Nippon India's new gilt ETF.

As with other equity mutual funds, the scheme's returns will remain market-linked and its stated investment objective does not provide an assurance of future returns.