India Investing

Advisors who like to use ETFs or mutual funds for client portfolios' foreign-country exposure may want to look into two new India investment offerings: one is an ETF from PowerShares Capital Management LLC, and the other is a mutual fund from Direxion Funds. PowerShares India ETF (PIN), started trading February 29 on the NYSE Arca. Direxion launched India Bull 2x Fund (DXILX), on March 19.

Chicago-based PowerShares' India ETF is based on the Indus India Index, investing in 50 local stocks (rather than U.S.-traded ADRs) that trade on India's National and Bombay Stock exchanges. The index tracks the equity markets in India, including companies that represent "the Indian Equity markets as a whole, with representation across the information technology, health sciences, financial services, heavy industry consumer products and other market segments" according to the company's February 29 announcement.

Boston-based Direxion's India Bull 2x Fund, pegged to the MSCI India Total Return Index, uses leverage to capture "daily investment results, before fees and expenses, of 200% of the price performance" for that index. "This index is a free-float-adjusted market capitalization index designed to measure the market performance, including price performance and income from dividend payments, of Indian equity securities," Direxion Funds states in its March 19 announcement.