[krishan]

Comments on the morningstar graph.
[ QUOTE ]

"Total returns calculated on a calendar-year basis. Total return includes both income (in the form of dividends or interest payments) and capital gains or losses (the increase or decrease in the value of a security). Morningstar calculates total return by taking the change in a fund's NAV, assuming the reinvestment of all income and capital gains distributions (on the actual reinvestment date used by the fund) during the period, and then dividing by the initial NAV.

Unless marked as load-adjusted total returns, Morningstar does not adjust total return for sales charges or for redemption fees. Total returns do account for management, administrative, and 12b-1 fees and other costs automatically deducted from fund assets. "

[/ QUOTE ]

So morningstar graphs do give you total returns assuming dividends, capital gains are reinvested. They do not take into account load fees or sales charges. Also,

[ QUOTE ]

" A benchmark index gives the investor a point of reference for evaluating a fund's performance. In all cases where such comparisons are made, Morningstar uses the S&P 500 as the primary benchmark for stock-oriented funds. The +/- (Trailing Time Period) figure indicates the amount by which a fund over or underperformed the S&P 500 during the specified time period.

Note: The total returns for the S&P 500 assume reinvestment of dividends on the last day of the month. This may account for differences between the index returns published on Morningstar.com and the index returns published elsewhere."


[/ QUOTE ]
So it looks like the S&P line that is graphed is the total returns assuming dividends are reinvested also. So this tool actually works to compare apples to apples between funds and the comparable index.

Krishan