The fund was launched in May 1992 as a closedended scheme and was welcomed by investors, raising `4,472 crore with its new fund offer. The fund turned open-ended in January 1997, with an objective of investing at least 80 per cent in equity and equity-related instruments with medium- to high-risk profile, with the remaining 20 per cent in debt and money market instruments with a low- to medium-risk profile.
The fund has had both good and bad years. But its performance over the past three years has brought it back into the limelight. It has delivered an annualised return of 8.74 per cent over the threeyear period ending January 31, 2011. After an exceptional run between 2002 and 2004, the fund faltered in the next three-year cycle. A lot changed in the funds performance after Anoop Bhaskar took over as the new fund manager in April 2007.
He started with a broad-based portfolio. The positioning and strategy of the fund was tightened by September 2007 and it was positioned as a flexicap product with not less than 70 per cent of the portfolio in large-cap stocks. Though it missed out on the initial part of the rally that started in March 2009, it made up with allocations in automobiles and increased exposure to technology stocks. Bhaskar's bet on high beta names across infrastructure and oil and gas, and also focused on domestic consumption space.
This is a safe fund within the category. The fund remains invested in large-cap stocks for the long periods and sticks to safe bets in the mid-cap space. This makes the fund steady, which hardly ever throws any surprises. For those looking for safety in this category, this is the fund to stay put for the long term.
