Deadline approaches for Jupiter India Fund offer period

The deadline for investors seeking to take advantage of the fixed offer price on Jupiter's newly-launched India Fund is fast approaching.

The Fund, which has a fixed offer price of 50p per unit until 3 March 2008, aims to achieve long term capital growth by investing in companies which operate or reside in India.

The Fund's launch has attracted significant interest from investors in the first weeks of its offer period and, Fund Manager Avinash Vazirani believes the recent stock market turbulence marks an attractive entry point for long term investors.

He explained: "Recent stock market turbulence has seen the Indian market drop by 18.72% from its high early this year - volatility that has been driven as much by investor sentiment as by indicators of an impending slowdown in global growth.

So, while this fall has made some investors a little jumpy, the economy remains in good shape and so the falls have, in fact, created a more attractive entry point for long term investors.

"While this nervousness has impacted the performance of India's stock market it does not change my view that India's economic health is robust. In fact, the recent correction has been something of a tonic for the Indian market where the central bank has put in place controls to prevent the economy overheating. In my view, the fundamentals are still sound, low inflation, interest rates which can be cut to boost growth if needed, high levels of domestic demand and a diverse range of companies which are extremely well placed to benefit from India's continued growth. This has been estimated at 9.3% for this year and 9.1% for next year.

"The market correction has created more attractive valuations, allowing me to invest in high quality growth companies at lower prices. I particularly like the domestic consumption story and will be looking for stocks which should benefit from he country's growing middle class, expected to explode from around 13.3 million households in 2005 to around 138 million in 2025."