EPFO deliberate on widening ETF range

New Delhi: Retirement fund body EPFO trustees on Tuesday will consider widening the range of equity linked schemes or exchange traded funds (ETFs) to maximise returns on its investments in stock markets.

Besides, the EPFO’s board will also consider a proposal to give extension of six more months to its five fund managers — SBI, ICICI Securities Primary Dealership, Reliance Capital, HSBC AMC and UTI AMC for managing its corpus, says agenda listed for the trustees meet scheduled for Tuesday.

The five fund managers were appointed for three years from April 1, 2015. They were given extension till June 30, 2018. Now, it has been proposed to give the five fund managers further extension till December 31, 2018 or till the time of appointment of new fund managers.

The EPFO has been investing in ETFs and now wants to enhance its range to maximise returns on its investments in stock markets. Presently, it has invested in UTI Mutual Fund, SBI Mutual Fund, CPSE ETF and Bharat 22, a senior official said.

The body got the maximum appreciation on its investments in UTI MF for which rate of return was 17.01 per cent with total value at Rs 8,995.04 crore. This was followed by 16.07 per cent return on Rs 34,603.64 crore invested in SBI MF.