Mumbai, April 19: Leading fund managers are eyeing shares of companies in the regulated sectors as they feel with reforms gathering pace, these companies could become the new growth stories on the bourses.

DSP Merrill Lynch today launched DSP ML India T.I.G.E.R Fund (The Infrastructure Growth and Economic Reforms Fund) to take advantage of the growth possibilities brought about by reforms.

“None of the leading political parties are against reforms per se,” DSP Merrill Lynch president Alok Vajpeyi said.

“Once the volatility on the stock markets and the elections are over, you will see a strong surge in equities,” said Vajpeyi.

The company announced three new schemes today, the DSP Merrill Lynch Savings Plus Fund-Aggressive, the DSP Merrill Lynch Savings Plus Fund-Conservative and the DSP Merrill Lynch India T.I.G.E.R Fund.

Positioning T.I.G.E.R as a diversified equity fund focusing on sectors and companies that could benefit from the ongoing process of economic reforms and infrastructure development fuelled by public and private sector investments.

Recently, ING Vysya tabled its prospectus before the Securities and Exchange Board of India to introduce a scheme called WTO Theme Fund. The scheme envisages investing in companies that will benefit tremendously as the quota restrictions in Europe and the US are removed by 2005.

Unit Trust of India, the largest mutual fund in the country, announced a slew of thematic funds in keeping with the trend in the market.

DSP Merrill Lynch senior vice-president and head-equities Anup Maheshwari said only 20 per cent of the market cap of BSE 100, an index that tracks 100 stocks on the Bombay Stock Exchange, belong to the unregulated sectors like FMCG and information technology.

The remaining companies in the BSE 100 belong to sectors that are still regulated, Maheshwari said.

India, like Japan in the 80s and the US in the 90s, is possibly moving to a high-growth path in GDP driven by infrastructure development and economic reforms.

Citing instances of how the American, Japanese and Chinese markets saw a spurt in GDP and market growth as infrastructure and economic reforms were undertaken, DSP Merrill Lynch officials are upbeat that India will also mirror similar trends.

“When a seminal change occurs in the economy, the market dynamics also changes,” S. Naganath, chief investment officer at DSP Merrill Lynch, said. Stating that India is at an “inflection point”, Naganath admitted, “The markets have surprised everybody, including ourselves.”

“We are at a point where change is structural in nature. In a decade, things will change substantially and then we will find the landscape changing enormously,” Naganath added.

The sectors where the funds will be deployed include power, telecom, oil and gas and banking. Deregulation in oil and gas prices and a growth in the power companies are expected to keep the sectors buoyant, officials said.