Strategy
The fund stays true to its stated objective of investing in top 100 companies; with very few stocks finding a place in its portfolio outside the BSE 100 universe, such as Sun TV Network at present. At the time of its launch this fund had 20 per cent allocation to mid-cap stocks. It was only in 2004 that this fund got categorised as large-cap and has continued to be so with an average large-cap allocation of 88 per cent.
This fund remains fully invested on most occasions with an average equity allocation of 93.30 per cent and rarely increases its cash holdings. It also deploys cash in index futures, which has been about 15 per cent over the past five months. The fund is actively managed with several stocks regularly entering and exiting the portfolio. Also, the fund manager does not hold back from re-investing in stocks that he exits. For instance, stocks such as SBI, RIL, L&T, Grasim Industries, BPCL, ONGC, Glaxosmithkline and TCS find regular place in the portfolio. Since January 2012, Automobile, Energy, Financial and Technology sectors have dominated the portfolio, with Reliance Industries once accounting for 7.81 per cent of the portfolio for a brief period.
Performance
As expected of large-cap funds, this fund does well in both bull and bear runs. A top quartile performer in six of the last eight years since its launch, the fund's consistency is reflected in its quarterly performance. In 24 of the past 36 quarters, this fund has done better than the category. In 2008, it restricted its fall to 45.54 per cent compared with the 52.45 per cent fall by the benchmark BSE 100. Again in 2011, the fund arrested the fall with 19.85 per cent drop when the benchmark witnessed a -24.64 per cent fall. A habitual outperformer, this fund has done better than the benchmark in every year since launch except 2009, though it was in the top quartile in 2009 too.
Why invest?
Don't be mistaken by this fund's short-term lacklustre performance, as stable performance has always been its hallmark, which has resulted in the assets managed by this fund swelling to `3,241.88 crore as on June 30, 2012, making it one of the top ten big funds.
