Portfolio

Citigroup of New York is developing an unusual Internet fund that will be traded on the American Stock Exchange.

Kinetics Asset Management of New York, the investment adviser of the Internet Fund, has filed with the SEC to offer a no-load fund that will invest in medical companies, especially those that are working on a cure for cancer.

Thomas P. Meehan, a lawyer in Washington, D.C., is planning to offer his own mutual fund, according to a registration statement filed with the SEC Sept. 7. The Meehan Focus Fund, part of the Meehan Mutual Funds, plans to invest in no more than 25 stocks at one time, according to the registration statement. There are no other funds in the family. The no-load fund will follow a value-oriented investment strategy.

While the open-end fund world has had Internet products on the market for several years, the closed-end world is just now introducing its first Internet fund.

Standard & Poor's and Dow Jones are currently competing to offer new international indexes.

If Putnam Investments of Boston creates an Internet fund, a possibility furthered by the creation of a partnership with money manager Thomas H. Lee this summer, Internet funds would be well on their way to becoming mainstream.

Employees in defined contribution plans invested their money wisely enough to reap an average return of 11 percent between 1985 and 1995, on par with the 12 percent return that defined benefit pension plan portfolio managers averaged in those 11 years, according to KPMG, the New York accounting and consulting firm. KPMG based its figures on Form 5500 series reports that companies are required to file with the Internal Revenue Service. KPMG published its findings in the August issue of "Benefits Spectrum", a newsletter it sends to clients.

Credit card companies commonly offer cash rewards and other prizes to encourage the use of their cards.

Delaware Investments of Philadelphia believes that there is an appetite for institutional funds in defined contribution plans and has created a new 401(k) product that offers numerous institutional products to plan sponsors and participants.

Credit Suisse First Boston of New York and Tremont Advisors of Rye, N.Y. are teaming up to create a series of hedge fund indexes and products to go along with them.