Prajna Capital - An Investment Guide

HSBC Equity has fallen short of expectations when its peers are rewarding their investors with much higher returns THE largest scheme from the HSBC basket, HSBC Equity Fund manages an average asset base of about Rs 1,377 crore. Launched in December 2002, the scheme is not only the oldest but also one of the most popular schemes from HSBC. Having run high on the popularity charts of the overall mutual fund ( MF ) industry during the few initial years of its launch, HSBC Equity has, however, failed to keep pace with the markets for quite some time now. PERFORMANCE: HSBC Equity started its innings in 2003 on a high not. In its first year, it beat its benchmark index the BSE 200 by extremely generous margins as it net asset value ( NAV ) jumped by 160% much higher than 95% rise in BSE 200 and a 72% return each by the Sensex and the Nifty that year. It maintained its winning streak in the following two years to emerge as one of the top performing funds of its time. But having said that, t...

Canara Robeco Taxsaver has made a strong comeback from the wilderness with a new identity and has emerged as a strong competitor to some of the well-established diversified equity schemes in the tax saving category LAUNCHED in March 1993, Canara Robeco Taxsaver is one of the oldest, yet one of the smallest tax savings ( ELSS ) schemes in the country today with assets under management of just about Rs 80 crore. Known as Canequity Taxsaver earlier, this fund has seen a big turnaround in performance after its foreign partner – Robeco Groep NV of Netherlands, acquired 49% stake in the erstwhile Canbank asset management. PERFORMANCE In its 17 year long performance history, Canara Robeco Taxsaver has been just about an average performer until 2008. Barring the two block-buster years of 1998 and 1999, when the fund had raced way ahead of its benchmark index, the BSE 100, as well as the broader market indices – the Sensex and the Nifty, this fund had in fact failed to garner any investor inter...