, chief investment officer, Principal Asset Management Company, does not necessarily agree with that viewpoint. Jain has rock solid numbers to make a case for Principal Dividend Yield Fund which was launched last week: a pack of 62 stocks with dividend yields of over 4 per cent in December 2000 significantly outperformed the Nifty, the Sensex and the BSE 200.
And it is possible to find high-yield stocks even at current levels of the Sensex (5100), Jain says. The point he asserts is that dividend yields have been more or less stable despite valuations going up due to higher pay-outs by companies.
"The Sensex's dividend yields are currently at 2.30 per cent compared to 2.44 per cent when the index was 2600 (September 2001) and 2.46 per cent (April 2002), meaning that we can find high-yielding stocks even at current levels," insists Jain.
Known to be a bit media shy, Jain did manage to give us some time before he left for yet another roadshow for the new fund. His favourite sectors include capital goods and cement.
The investment officer, who religiously follows a bottom-up investment approach, expects a boom in the infrastructure segment in the long term.
In his early 40s, Jain has spent his entire career in the mutual fund industry. Armed with a management degree from IIM, Lucknow, he started off with SBI Mutual Fund in 1989. After a 11-year stint there, Jain moved to Principal in 2000.
Jain seems to be intrigued by wars - he tracks movies and books on war. Action movies, too, hold his attention. Soccer and classic rock are two other things that keep him on his toes.
But the biggest interest is Indian history. He spends much of his free time reading about history and visiting archeological sites (on the Internet, that is!). His 11-year-old daughter helps him regain his interest in the subject.
"I read history while teaching her the same," he says. Jain combines his interest in history with his passion for driving: he drives to various places of historical importance. One expects this history buff to make a decisive mark on the fund house's history, too.
