Index Funds

I want to know about Index Funds and want to invest in them, especially in Nifty Banking BeES and Nifty Junior BeEs, both listed on Nifty. How do I buy them and whom should I contact?
-Anonymous

An index fund is an equity fund, which tracks a particular index like the BSE Sensex or the Nifty. Such a fund holds the same stocks as the underlying index and in the same proportion as in the index. The investment objective of these funds is to match the index return over a period of time.

The funds mentioned by you, Nifty Banking BeES and Nifty Junior BeEs are two of the oldest Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) of Benchmark AMC. From an investment point of view, these funds are simply index funds that-unlike normal index funds-can be bought and sold at intra-day prices throughout a trading day. In this respect they are more like shares rather than like mutual funds. ETFs, since they need to be transacted upon throughout the day, are bought and sold through stockbrokers (using a demat account) just like shares. Initially, to invest in these you need to open a demat account with a broker and then buy the units of the fund like any other share.

(Source: Value Research)