NFO review: Axis Nifty Midcap 50 Index Fund

It's been raining passive funds in the mutual fund industry for the last couple of quarters. Fund houses have now started joining this bandwagon even for their mid-cap and small-cap products. Now, Axis Mutual Fund has rolled out an index fund, Axis Nifty Midcap 50 Index Fund in the mid-cap space on March 10, 2022. The new fund offer (NFO) will close for subscription on March 21, 2022. About the strategy The Axis Nifty Midcap 50 Index Fund would be the first index fund to mimic 'Nifty Midcap 50 TRI'. However, Kotak was the first fund house to track this index with the launch of its Kotak Midcap 50 ETF in January 2022. Nifty Midcap 50 index comprises the top 50 stocks based on full market capitalisation from the Nifty Midcap 150 index (representing 150 companies ranked 101-250 as per full market capitalisation from the Nifty 500 index). Thus, the primary objective of this underlying index is to capture the movement of the midcap segment of the market. As this index captures the top 50 companies from the universe of Nifty Midcap 150, there are some subtle and not-so-subtle differences between the two indices. First, the top five sectors are broadly the same; however, their weightage in the Midcap 50 index is slightly higher. Further, the top five holdings make up only 10 per cent of the Midcap 150 portfolio, but it is al