Going against the tide! Will Prashant Jain succeed?

Prashant Jain of HDFC Mutual Fund is a star fund manager and has to his credit best 20-year track record in the mutual fund industry. He has a history of being ahead of the markets and has been able to do it by positioning his funds for the next cycle and protecting from hot sectors. Jain is known for his contrarian calls and his rather conservative stance. He currently manages four funds (HDFC Top 100, HDFC Equity, HDFC Hybrid Debt and HDFC Balanced Advantage) with a combined AUM of more than Rs 60,000 crore. We tracked his last three months moves and here is what we found: Top 5 Buys Prashant Jain's love for PSU (Public Sector Undertakings) continues as he deployed majority of new cash to government-owned companies in the last three months. Jain is known for his bet on public sector banks too at a time when the market was going overboard with the private lenders. Company Name Total amount in Rs Crore invested in last 3 months REC 408 Power Finance Corpn. 351 Tata Consultancy Services 265 Coal India 245 National Thermal Power Corp. 241 Taking ever larger bets These are the companies where he raised his stake the most, again the bullishness on government owned companies is evident with four out of five companies being PSUs. Company Name Holding in the company as of 31-10-2018 (%) Holding in the company as 31-01-2019 (%) Change REC 3.2 5 1.8 Power Finance Corpn. 5 6.3 1.4 JMC Projects (India) 3.3 3.9 0.6 Vi