ONE ASSET plans fund of US equities

One Asset Management's 1 AM US Recovery Opportunity Fund plans to invest in 15 major US stocks, including Citigroup, said Suripol Khemjinda, director and executive vice president.

With a weak US dollar and ailing equity market, US stocks "can only go up", Suripol told The Nation a few days before the fund's launch.

At least, monetary and fiscal stimuli seem to be in place to give the US economy a boost.

He said some stocks were trading at record lows. For example, Citigroup should be a bargain, having traded as low as US$17.99 per share recently, Suripol said.

With an extensive global network of branches, it should be difficult for the bank to go bust, he said.

The new fund is overweight in the financial sector, which accounts for 27 per cent of its picks. They include Goldman Sachs, Blackstone and JP Morgan Chase.

Consumer cyclicals like Abercrombie & Fitch and Best Buy are also in the portfolio, while its industrial and tech stocks include Apple. These sectors each take up 20 per cent of the fund's portfolio.

With registered capital of Bt1.6 billion, the stocks are up for review each quarter.

Being a special fund, its managers have the right to sell investment units if the net asset value rises more than 50 per cent or if the net asset value per unit exceeds Bt12 in three consecutive days. The fund is scheduled to expire in two years.