Exchange traded funds (ETFs) have emerged as a new investment vehicle in the mutual fund industry providing investors with the ability to trade the entire market through a single transaction executed at the exchange. Using a sample of 12 equity ETFs from 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2015, the present article attempts to examine the performance efficiency of ETFs in India and explore factors that drive the performance of ETFs away from their target indices. The study reveals that ETFs exhibit significant tracking error while trying to replicate the returns of their benchmark indices. The results of panel regression analysis further reveal that the assets under management and volume positively affected the tracking ability of ETFs whereas volatility is reported to have negative impact on the tracking efficiency of ETFs. The results will have important implications for investors, managers as well as for the evaluation criteria involved in assessing the performance of actively managed funds.
The present study attempts to examine the tracking ability of Indian equity exchange traded funds (ETFs) across the bearish and bullish market regimes. Also, ETFs’ sensitivity to their respective underlying indices across the two market conditions is examined so as to gain an insight into the differences in risk exposure under the two regimes using DBM. The results found that the tracking error (TE) of ETFs varies across the two market regimes with it higher during the bullish regime. At the same time, ETFs’ responsiveness to their underlying indices is found to be higher during the bearish market regime, which justifies the existence of lower TE during the bearish regime. NIFTYBEES, KOTAKNIFTY and BANKBEES emerged to be the top three performers in terms of tracking efficiency. Further, NIFTYBEES, BANKBEES and JUNIORBEES are reported to provide significantly positive excess returns during the bullish regime. As such, investors considering investment in equity ETFs can opt for the top performing funds where they also stand a chance to earn excess return (in few cases). Also, it is observed the beta coefficients of ETFs varied significantly from unity. It suggests that the ETFs and their respective underlying indices are not subject to similar systematic risk.
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