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Central Asia's maiden Crypto fund has been launched in Kazakhstan.Alem Crypto Fund has started operating in Kazakhstan. It was established by the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development of Kazakhstan, managed by Qazaqstan Venture Group and registered within the ecosystem of the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC).The primary objective of the fund is to make long-term investments in digital assets and to build strategic reserves. In the future, Alem Crypto Fund may also serve as a vehicle for state-level savings, expanding the country’s capabilities in managing the finances of tomorrow."The creation of the Alem Crypto Fund is a step toward advancing digital finance in Kazakhstan. Our goal is to make it a reliable instrument for major investors and a key foundation for digital state reserves," noted Zhaslan Madiyev, Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan.The strategic partner of the fund is Binance Kazakhstan - a locally licensed company within the global Binance ecosystem, the world’s leading player in the digital asset industry.In partnership with Binance Kazakhstan, Alem Crypto Fund made its first investment by acquiring BNB - the native token of the BNB Chain.BNB is used for processing transactions, paying fees and participating in network governance.

Ace investor Shankar Sharma's India and US equity exposure is lowest in 30 years, the GQuant FinXray founder said in a tweet. The statement comes following a 12-month review of his Family Office's portfolio and he claimed that the strategy has worked out well for him. He remains negative on both the markets as far as indexes are concerned.Sharma has listed out five things that came out from the review following India's September 2024 peak:1) "India & US today are my lowest exposures ever, in 30 years. Worked out well". 2) "India portfolio, last 12 months, has been quite outstanding though. Unlisted has been astonishing. Listed, thanks to the March crash, has been excellent too".3) Global portfolio has been beyond expectations4) China has had a stellar 18 months (was early into the trade. Esp in mainland stocks)".5) Sharma called the US as the biggest troublemaker and his portfolio has lagged the benchmark by 7% this year. He said that it is the only market where his portfolio has underperformed the benchmarks. "The US has been my most problematic market. Despite my lowest weight ever, one cannot be zero US. My US portfolio has lagged benchmark by 7% this year. This is the only one that has not beaten respective benchmarks by a massive margin," Sharma said.Also Read: Why Shankar Sharma calls data centre stocks a bubble and enthusiasm around them a "hope trade"He attributed the aberration to the US being a "narrow market" where only a handful of companies have delivered superior returns over the index returns. "The reason for this is very clear: as a matter of policy, I run very diversified strategies globally. Concentration is anathema to me.But, the US has been a HUGELY concentrated, narrow market, where just a handful of companies have delivered more than the index returns. If you ran a diversified active portfolio, there is almost no way you could beat the benchmark in America," Sharma opined. "And there in lies the problem for the American market: it's extremely narrow and narrow markets do not end well," the tweet said, highlighting that he continues to be negative on America and India on an index basis.For him, there have been incredible opportunities across asset classes, markets, sectors & stocks on the global stage. "But globally, there have been incredible opportunities across asset classes, markets, sectors & stocks. Therefore , the last 12 months have been one of the very best & easiest of my investing life, with the least time spent on investing activity. Ever," the tweet said."My Return on Time Invested (ROTI) has never been higher. For me that remains a key metric I track. Because the higher the ROTI, the higher the RoE of life itself. And therefore, mathematically, Life's PE Ratio keeps trending higher too, ipso facto. In life and in markets, we know " E" doesn't matter as much as the RoE and the PE," Sharma further said.Also Read: Shankar Sharma slams high options trading costs in India, calls it 'frightfully expensive'(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)

Amid current economic indicators and shifting geopolitical dynamics, Rishi Kohli, CIO of JioBlackRock Mutual Fund, recommends that first time investors may go for SIPs in the JioBlackRock Flexi Cap Fund whereas seasoned investors who understand the market cycles better may go for lumpsum investment in the fund.The CIO in an exclusive webinar said that, ““Based on current signals and geopolitical scenarios, new investors can begin with SIPs, while seasoned investors can consider lump sums – since our aim is to manage risk and volatility while targeting alpha.” – Rishi Kohli, CIO JioBlackRock Asset Management Private Limited.”Also Read | How JioBlackRock Mutual Fund is using AI to generate alpha in its new flexicap fundThe JioBlackRock Flexi Cap Fund is now open for subscription and will close on October 7. The fund will reopen for continuous sale and repurchase within five business days of allotment date.According to Rishi Kohli, this is India's first active equity fund powered by Systematic Active Equity (SAE) and this SAE approach helps the fund house decide which news, article, or signal to pick and link to investments – aiming at investors' benefit.He further highlighted that the fund doesn't just focus on alpha but the risk and cost are also built into the process.““Our traditional plus alternative data approach helps us react faster. Aladdin, Blackrock’s end-to-end integrated platform, supports us in managing the fund at scale, with cost efficiencies,” Kohli said in the webinar. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">“Aladdin, Blackrock’s end-to-end integrated platform, supports us in managing the fund at scale, with cost efficiencies” – Rishi Kohli, CIO JioBlackRock Asset Management Private Limited<br/><br/>Hear the full podcast for more insights: <a href="https://t.co/1VkpdZDDMO">https://t.co/1VkpdZDDMO</a></p>&mdash; JioBlackRock Mutual Fund (@JioBlackRockmf) <a href="https://twitter.com/JioBlackRockmf/status/1972976828689391815?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 30, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>The flexi cap fund is following an active investment strategy which adopts a systematic approach to stock selection and portfolio construction. The approach allows the fund managers to respond proactively to changing market conditions and emerging opportunities.The investible universe of the scheme is defined by the fund managers based on inputs from the investment team to limit investments into stocks of issuers based on their track record pertaining to governance, debt servicing, regulatory compliance or market perceptions and such other parameters. The portfolio construction process is powered by BlackRock's technology platform - Aladdin, which has been licensed to JioBlackRock AMC. This process is augmented by an optimization process which leverages the composite research score along with other inputs from the investment team such as risk constraints, transaction cost, market liquidity, sector constraints and such other inputs.JioBlackRock Flexi Cap Fund is an open-ended dynamic equity scheme investing across large cap, mid cap, small cap stocks. The investment objective of the Scheme is to generate long term capital appreciation by investing in equity and equity related instruments across market capitalization.Also Read | Jio BlackRock Mutual Fund launches first active equity fund. Should you invest?This flexi cap fund from JioBlackRock Mutual Fund will allocate 65-100% in equity and equity-related instruments of large cap, mid cap and small cap companies, 0-35% in debt and money market instruments, and 0-10% in units of REITS and InvITs.The fund will be benchmarked against Nifty 500 Index (TRI) and will be managed by Tanvi Kacheria and Sahil Chaudhary. Maximum Total expenses ratio (TER) permissible under Regulation 52 (6) (c) is upto 2.25%, according to the scheme information document (SID).