Launched around the peak of the IPO boom, Prima Plus started as a stock collector. By March 1996, the fund's portfolio was totally out of focus with nearly 200 stocks in its kitty, including many small-cap and illiquid issues. Despite relentless cleaning of the portfolio, the fund took nearly four years to consolidate. Since 1998, the fund has been focusing on large and mid-caps and to a more manageable number of issues -- 45-60 in the last two years. A sharpened portfolio focus ahead of the market rally saw the fund turn in stupendous returns in 1998 and 1999. It grew at a fast pace to make up for initial losses with big bets in technology, some of which - such as Satyam, Hughes, Zee and Mastek - went awry. Losing nearly 32 per cent in 2000 has made it conservative, with high concentration on large-caps. In 2001, it fared much better losing only 5.44 per cent against the category's average decline of 19.09 per cent.
In the next two years, the fund delivered in line with the category average. In 2003, it managed 107.27 per cent, marginally lower than the peers' 111.56 per cent. Abundance of large-cap (an average 79 per cent) in a year dominated by mid-caps resulted into an average show. Similar performance continued in 2004 as well. The fund survived the May mayhem quite well--helped by a tech dominated portfolio, it lost 7.34 per cent as against the category average loss of over 9 per cent.
This year, the fund from the word go has been almost fully invested. Since the start of the year, the fund is up 47.39 per cent as on December 19, 2005. Today, it favours diversified, financial and technology sector stocks.
This article was originally published on December 21, 2005.
Ask Value Research 
New episodes every Friday 
New Process Alert 
Seems like you've uploaded a wrong QR code. Please upload the QR code downloaded from MF Central platform.
