In good times and bad

Aggressive hybrid funds have always received stepmotherly treatment despite possessing a trifecta of standout qualities - predictable equity-debt allocation, tax-efficient auto-rebalancing and favourable equity taxation. Which is why we'd like to reiterate their goodness. These funds offer you the best of both worlds; they generate good returns while providing some much-needed downside protection at crunch times. In fact, even when equity surges north, as it did in the financial year gone by, they manage to stay on their coattails. In the last financial year, aggressive hybrid funds delivered 31.1 per cent despite owning debt securities that primarily act as a cushion during bad times. While the funds' performance may pale compared to BSE 500 TRI's 40.2 per cent, they comfortably beat the Sensex, which delivered 26.5 per cent. Moreover, their performance remained fairly consistent throughout the year, even during the rocky January-March period. The performance of these funds also stands out when it comes to cushioning the down

This article was originally published on May 15, 2024.