ICICI Prudential Contra Fund NFO Opens for Subscription

Key Takeaways:

• ICICI Prudential Contra Fund opened for subscription on September 28. 
• The NFO is scheduled to close on October 12. 
• The minimum investment during the new fund offer period is ₹1,000. 

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund has opened the new fund offer for ICICI Prudential Contra Fund, adding a new scheme to the contra category. 

The NFO opened for subscriptions on September 28 and will close on October 12. The minimum investment amount has been set at ₹1,000, according to data reported by The Economic Times. 

Contra funds follow a strategy built around taking positions that differ from prevailing market preferences. 

Under SEBI's mutual fund categorisation framework, fund houses can offer a value fund or a contra fund, subject to the applicable category rules, rather than operating multiple overlapping schemes under both labels. 

The category sits within equity mutual funds. 

Its distinguishing feature is the investment style. A contra strategy may look for companies or sectors that are temporarily out of favour, provided the fund manager believes their market valuation does not adequately reflect underlying fundamentals or longer-term prospects. 

That can make portfolio construction different from strategies concentrated around the market's strongest-performing themes at a particular point in time. 

Performance can also diverge for extended periods because a contrarian position may take time to play out. A stock being unpopular or trading below an earlier valuation does not by itself guarantee that its price will recover. 

ICICI Prudential Contra Fund NFO enters the market during a busy week for new fund launches. 

Six mutual fund schemes and one Specialised Investment Fund are scheduled to open during the week, spanning categories including equity, fund of funds, ETFs and life-cycle investing. 

Two of the week's launches, the ICICI Prudential Contra Fund and WhiteOak Capital's small-cap FoF, opened on September 28. 

For ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, the NFO expands its equity product range into the contra category. 

Subscriptions remain open until October 12.