Fund Openings, Closings, Manager Moves: Putnam Gears Up for Tech Fund
What tech selloff?
Putnam Investments
will launch the
Putnam Technology
fund on July 17, according to a company statement Thursday. Last year, the average tech fund rose more than 100%, but this year the category is averaging a modest 1.7% gain. The move indicates Putnam's bullishness on the broad, mercurial sector and its belief that investors haven't given up either.
The broker-sold fund, which
TheStreet.com
previewed June 1, will invest in computer, software, semiconductor, electronics, telecommunications and biotechnology stocks of any size, according to the fund's regulatory filing and the company's statement.
Although Putnam has several tech-heavy growth funds, like the recently launched
(PNCAX)
Putnam New Century Growth fund, this is its first pure technology sector fund.
The fund will be run by David Santos, Paul Marrkand and Saba Malak, who joined the firm in 1986, 1987 and 1997, respectively. Santos and Marrkand have recently joined the management teams of other Putnam growth funds, while Malak has worked as a technology analyst.
The fund has been quietly managed since June 14 and is only open to Putnam employees until its July 17 launch. The fund's Class A and Class M shares will levy a 5.75% and 3.5% front-end load or sales charge, respectively. Class B and Class C shares charge a 5% and 1% back-end load, respectively.
The funds myriad share classes' annual expenses range from 1.61% to 2.36%. The average tech fund's expense ratio is 1.66%.
Dreyfus Looks for Future Leaders
Dreyfus
wants to play find the leader, not to be confused with follow the leader.
On Thursday the New York money manager rolled out broker-sold
Dreyfus Premier Future Leaders Fund
, which will troll the small-cap waters looking for future industry leaders.
The fund will hold stocks from a broad range of industries, zeroing in on small-caps, typically defined as companies whose market capitalizations are below $1.5 billion. Paul Kandel and Hilary Woods will hold the reins. The pair have had success running the small-cap
(DRELX)
Emerging Leaders and mid-cap
(DNLDX) - Get Report
New Leaders funds since 1996.
Class A and Class T shares carry front-end loads, or sales charges, of 5.75% and 4.5%, respectively. Class B and Class C shares have a 4% and 1% back-end load, respectively.
The fund's annual expenses range from 1.4% to 2.15%. The average small-cap fund's expenses are 1.45%, according to
Morningstar
.
See
Fund Openings, Closings, Manager Moves from earlier Thursday.
See Wednesday's
Fund Openings, Closings, Manager Moves.
