Emerging market like India, which now becoming more and more popular as an investment destination, is attracting global investors, who are looking for higher returns compared to the US interest rate, which is now having a declining trend.

This is evident from the fact that India`s benchmark index, Sensex, gained nearly 47% in the year 2007, maintaining its momentum, prevalent over the past few years. Investors can thus earn handsome returns from the ever-growing and potentially lucrative Indian markets. But what if one aims to earn higher returns? The next question which arises is-Would that be an easy task? The answer to the question is `No`, as the process of discovering the right stock to invest in, involves constant monitoring of the markets and events, thorough analysis of companies and sectors, proper timing for entry and exit, and last but not the least, patience. Fund managers at Taurus Mutual Fund are doing this task extremely well; look at the Taurus Discovery Stock, which managed to deliver more than double the returns provided by the Sensex.

Launched in 1994, Taurus Discovery Stock is equity oriented diversified open-ended scheme. The fund aims to achieve long term capital gains by investing predominantly in equity oriented securities and stands firm to its objectives by delivering excellent returns in recent years.

Over the last one year, the fund delivered annualized return of 99.95% beating the benchmark BSE 200 Index by a whopping margin of 39.51% as on Dec. 31, 2007. In the 3 year period, the fund has provided annualized return of 48.09% compared with 44.17% returns provided by benchmark as on Dec. 31, 2007. In the near term, the fund presented return of 42.89% in last 3 months ended Dec. 31, 2007, as against 25.37% delivered by benchmark in the same period.

Moving forward to the investment pattern, the fund targets high growth oriented stocks particularly in mid-cap space, at an appropriate time. It`s better, if we understand more about the investment philosophy and stock picking approach from the fund managers. Nitish Ojha, fund manager said, ``We use a top down approach to make sure the companies we`re picking are in an industry that`s growing rapidly and has visibility. To identify stocks within that industry we use a combination of fundamental analysis including both qualitative and quantitative inputs, combined with management meetings. ``

The fund is having total assets corpus of about Rs 532.6 million as on Dec. 31, 2007. Out of this, the fund allocated 23.34% of its portfolio to giant size companies, 28.58% to large caps, 27.85% to midcaps and 19.56% to small caps. The fund is betting on financial services, energy, service, and metal stocks. When queried by Myiris about outlook of these sectors, Ojha said, ``the great Indian growth story unfolding before us will require these sectors to outperform the broader market. Metals are a combination of Indian demand along with the Chinese and are more susceptible to a global downturn. India as a country has very a low penetration of financial services and a large part of the population remains underserved, which presents an imminent opportunity.``

Another great news for retail investors is, recently the market regulator, SEBI removed entry fee on applications which are received through the internet, directly submitted to asset management companies (AMC) or to the collection centre/investor services centres that are not routed through any distributor, agent or broker. Commenting on this, Ojha said, ``It changes the economics of running a mutual fund. That apart, the retail investor stands to benefit and after the initial adjustment by the AMC`s I think it will boost AUMs. ``

Since past performance does not guarantee the future, it is important to understand the overall market performance in future. Ojha said, ``2008 will be a slightly more difficult year compared to last the 3-4 years in terms of returns that the market may provide. However, for the medium to long term investors, I think India is on a high growth path that appears sustainable over the next 3-5 years. `` The growth opportunities and the macro factors continue to remain attractive in India but at the same time investors should be cautious and think for long term before going in for investment.