Portfolio

Prudential Investments of Newark, N.J., has raised $391 million during its 31-day initial offering period for its three new sector funds (MFMN 6/14/99).

It may no longer be enough for a mutual fund company to supply defined contribution plan participants with a trusted brand name, a diversified portfolio of funds, strong performance and a glossy investment kit.

Why would a mutual fund company want to be bothered offering a 401(k) plan to a company with fewer than 100 employees when a 401(k) account at a single Fortune 500 company can mean tens of millions of dollars of assets under management?

A division of U.S. Trust Co. of Boston is managing two socially-conscious index funds that depart from their peers by trying to beat the S&P 500 rather than special indexes filled with socially-screened stocks.

Fidelity Investments of Boston has created a new index fund of funds. The new fund, the Fidelity Four-in-One Index Fund, invests in the Spartan Market, the Spartan Extended Market, the Spartan International and the Fidelity U.S. Bond index funds. The fund will invest 55 percent of assets in the Spartan Market Index Fund, which mimics the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, and split remaining assets equally between the three other funds.

ING Funds Trust of Philadelphia, Pa., made its ING Internet Fund available to the public on July 6. But already, the fund company is talking about closing the fund.

INVESCO Funds Group of Denver, Colo., has opened two money market funds, originally intended only for institutional investors, to the retail market. These are the INVESCO Treasurer's Money Market Reserve Fund and the INVESCO Treasurer's Tax Exempt Reserve Fund.

Mackenzie Investment Management, a mutual fund investment adviser in Boca Raton, Fla., has launched a new family of five international funds of funds. Mackenzie calls this fund family International Solutions.

Berger Funds of Denver, Colo., has renamed its InformationTech 100 Fund the Berger Information Technology Fund. The fund will invest in companies offering hardware, software, networking and communications. This fund invests with a longer investment horizon than other technology funds, the company said in a statement.

The San Francisco investment bank of Hambrecht & Quist, known for taking companies public, is banking on that same line of business with its first open-end mutual fund.