Motilal Oswal, the Indian asset manager that caters to high net worth individuals, has announced that it will list its range of exchange traded funds in Asia and the US, in domestic currencies.

The MOSt Shares M50 EFT, launched in June 2010, is a basket of 50 stocks in the S&P CNX Nifty, the most popular index in India. The stocks carry various weightings depending on return on equity, share price, net worth, and retained earnings. To date, the company said, MOSt Shares M50 is the second largest equity ETF in India by assets and the largest equity ETF in the country by number of investors.

"We want to expand the platform to cover large cap, mid cap, small cap, as well as sector products. We want to launch these by the end of March next year," said Nitin Rakesh, chief executive of Motilal Oswal.

Losses incurred during the 2008 global crisis have led HNW individuals to look into alternative assets, with ETFs taking a huge share of the attention. According to a recent report by Cerulli Associates, which looks into the growth of the ETF market, investors are particularly attracted to this asset class because it offers an inexpensive way to gain exposure to market segments that can be expensive to manage actively, including international and emerging markets.

The new ETF products will be launched abroad in conjunction with local partners.

"Retail uptake will increase in a big way because of the advisor move to fees and the move to wealth platforms. Investors are also doing more asset allocation," Rakesh added.