It maintains a diversified equity portfolio across sectors and market caps.
It tends to maintain a relentless focus on long-term and ignores momentum to a large extent. So, sectors on a high metals and construction in 2007 - will not lead the fund to buy the stocks even at the cost of lower returns. In 2009, the FMCG allocation began to drop towards the year-end, despite the market rallying from March. This again shows the manger sticks to his convictions and does not get swayed by the market.
In 2008, it was the third-best performing fund in its category. Instead of resorting to aggressive cash calls (averaged 5per cent), the fund increased its exposure to FMCG and healthcare. The distinct large-cap bias came to its rescue. Though in a rising market (2009), the fund was an average.
The majority of the portfolio is held for long and some favourites (Infosys, L&T, Grasim Industries, RIL, Cummins India, Marico) have been around for a long period. The fund takes small positions in larger number of stocks, which are churned often. Of the 52 stocks, 22 have less than one per cent allocation (total 15 per cent).
An average in rising markets, it made its mark in the downturn. You will here see a portfolio with fundamentally strong stocks that reward investors in the long run. Its 3-year annual return (10.08 per cent), is ahead of the category average (6.52 per cent).
