International Funds are those funds which invest in equity and debt of foreign countries like US, Europe, China, etc. Investors who wants to invest in foreign companies can invest through this channel because directly investing in foreign companies for retail investor is complex. This funds provide low correlation with Indian markets this can help to diversify their portfolio and reduce their risk in time like covid-19. There are other various reason to invest in those funds such as Provides access to high growth companies not listed in India. Provides strong hedge against rupee depreciation (rupee depreciation increases returns from international funds). In the last one year Investor are investing in those funds in large. The number of folios in those funds rose to 700k from 200k in April 2020. And the AUM rose to RS 12,408cr from RS 3,282cr.
Some Fund names are as follows:
Edelweiss Greater China Equities Off-shore Fund, Fund of Fund scheme investing in the Greater China Fund of JP Morgan Fund. Equity fund primarily investing in companies domiciled or carrying out their main business activities in the Greater China Region – China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Takes high conviction approach while investing in just 50 stocks out of 785 stocks in MSCI Golden Dragon Index. This fund gave 16.92% CAGR for 10 years having AUM of RS 1272 cr
Kotak Global Emerging Market Fund , Invests in the small cap companies of the Asian and/or Pacific region. This fund has given 12.92% for 5 years CAGR with expense ratio of 1.67 while having fund size of just RS 127cr.
ICICI Prudential US Bluechip Equity Fund
DSP US Flexible Equity Fund
There are other various Mutual Funds which offers mix equities of Indian companies as well as foreign companies like Parag Parikh Flexicap Fund.
Taxation policy in International MFs have Short term capital gains on redeeming units before 3 years of investment are taxed @ 15%. Long term capital gains on redeeming units after 3 years of investments are taxed @ 10% (along with cess and surpluses, if applicable) with indexation benefits.