UTI Nifty500 Shariah Index Fund NFO Opens Today With Shariah-Compliant Investing

UTI Nifty500 Shariah Index Fund NFO: The UTI Nifty500 Shariah Index Fund NFO started on Thursday, February 5, 2026. This fund is made to follow the Nifty500 Shariah TRI. UTI Mutual Fund said in its Scheme Information Document that the goal is to match the index returns before costs, though small differences can happen because of tracking error.

This is an open-ended index fund, which means it is a passive fund. It simply copies the Nifty500 Shariah Index instead of choosing stocks actively. The fund will try to give returns close to the index, but UTI has clearly said there is no guarantee that the fund will fully meet its investment goal.

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The scheme is suitable for investors who want Shariah-compliant exposure to a wide set of Indian companies listed in the Nifty500 universe.

• Plans and options: The fund is available in Regular and Direct plans and both plans come with only the Growth option
• Entry and exit load:There is no entry load and there is also no exit load

Minimum investment amount:

• Minimum lump sum investment starts at ₹1,000
• Additional investments can be made in multiples of ₹1
• Minimum SIP amount is ₹500
• SIPs are available on daily, weekly, and monthly basis

This fund is designed for long-term investors who prefer simple index-based investing while following Shariah principles.

• NFO open date: February 5, 2026
• NFO closure date: February 18, 2026

How will the scheme allocate its assets?

The fund will not take part in stock lending at any time. It will invest most of its money in shares that are part of the Nifty500 Shariah Index. The scheme will put at least 95% and up to 100% of its total amount in these index stocks. The remaining amount, up to 5%, can be kept in cash or other investments that follow Shariah rules.

However, the scheme will not invest in following securities:

• Securitized Debt
• Overseas Securities/ Foreign Securities
• ReITS and InVITS
• Debt Instruments with Special Features (AT1 and AT2 Bonds)
• Debt instruments with SO/ CE rating
• Repo/ Reverse repo transactions in corporate debt securities
• Credit default Swap transactions
• Covered call options
• Unlisted debt instrument
• Bespoke or complex debt products
• Unrated debt money market instruments (except G-Secs, T-Bills and other money market instruments)
• Debt Derivatives
• Short selling
• Securities Lending (Stock lending)
• Mutual Funds

“The net assets of the scheme will be invested in stocks constituting the underlying index. This would be done by investing in the stocks comprising of the index. The Scheme may take an exposure to equity derivatives of constituents of the underlying index for short duration when securities of the index are unavailable, insufficient or for rebalancing at the time of change in index or in case of corporate actions, as permitted subject to rebalancing within 7 days or as specified by SEBI from time to time. The exposure of scheme in derivative instruments shall be upto 20% of the net assets of the scheme,” the SID says.

How will the scheme be managed?

The fund will be handled by Sharwan Kumar Goyal along with Ayush Jain. As mentioned in the Scheme Information Document, the fund will follow a passive style of investing. This means the managers will simply invest in the same shares that are part of the Nifty500 Shariah Index TRI instead of actively picking stocks.

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“The investment strategy would revolve around reducing the tracking error to the least possible through regular rebalancing of the portfolio, taking into account the change in weights of stocks in the Index as well as the incremental collections/redemptions in the Scheme.”

More about the Nifty500 Shariah Index

Top 10 stocks

Sector-wise allocation

As per the Niftyindices factsheet dated January 30, 2026, the Nifty500 Shariah Index has delivered a total return of 12.13% since it started on February 19, 2008. Over the past five years, the index has generated an annualised return of 13.42%.