The table below lists out equity diversified funds from the large cap and large to mid-cap bias along with their returns across similar timelines. In addition to this, contra funds returns are also listed for comparison purpose.
Fund Returns: (Equity Diversified Pack)
Fund Returns: (Contra Funds Pack)
Green: Outperformance of fund w.r.t both Sensex and Nifty.
Red: Underperformance of fund w.r.t both Sensex and Nifty.YTD: Year-To-Date Returns
Highlights: (Equity Diversified Pack)
i) Canara Robeco has consistently outperformed the benchmark on all timelines.
ii) SBI Magnum Equity has been able to outperform both the key indices in the last 4 iterations.
iii) 2009 and 2011 was the best year for this fund basket as all the funds have outperformed Sensex and Nifty.
iv) On an average basis, diversified equity funds have been able to outscore the benchmarks on all occasions.
v) In comparison to the contra funds, lot of green is available in the table above, conveying more outperformance vis-à-vis underperformance.
Highlights: (Contra Pack)
i) L&T contra has been a consistent underperformer on all timelines except the YTD returns.
ii) Tata contra has been able to outperform both the key indices in the last 4 iterations.
iii) 2010 was the worst year for contra funds and only exception was Tata contra which managed to outperform Sensex and Nifty.
iv) It has been a decent year so far for the contra funds; with 5 out of 6 funds have outperformed the benchmarks, although not by a huge magnitude.
v) On an average basis, contra funds have been able to outscore benchmarks on just 2 occasions, namely, 2009 and on YTD basis this year.
Top 3 Industry Concentrations: May-31-2012 (Equity Diversified)
Top 3 Industry Concentrations: May-31-2012 (Contra)
The above stats about the top 3 industry concentration reveals that “Financial” as an industry is the top pick for all the 5 equity diversified funds and contra funds as well. Energy or Tech is the second most favorite industry for this pack. The third slot is again occupied by FMCG, Energy or Tech industry, interchangeably.
Top 5 Holdings: May-31-2012 (Equity Diversified)
Top 5 Holdings: May-31-2012 (Contra)
On analyzing the top 5 holdings data from equity diversified pack, the stocks chosen are mostly blue-chips or stalwarts as per their asset allocation bias.
If we analyze top 5 holdings data from the contra pack, the stocks chosen are again mostly blue-chips or stalwarts that have become out of favor due to reasons either intrinsic to them or on a broader note, to the industry itself.
Apart from the blue-chips, the other contra bets such as GSFC and Sadbhav Engg. (Not so famous names) but they are far and few in between.
Apart from the blue-chips, the other contra bets such as GSFC and Sadbhav Engg. (Not so famous names) but they are far and few in between.
Conclusion:
After a thorough evaluation, it is now a revelation that almost all the contra funds are also employing a value investing approach. The top picks and top industries are in line to the diversified equity fund following a large-cap bias or a value based style.
The equity diversified pack has shown a decent performance almost on all historical timelines. On the flip side, in contra pack, the returns have faltered on historical timelines but on an YTD measure the returns they have been on a positive side.
This positive aspect is also a reflection on the change in the investment style where the focus in the contra pack has also shifted to blue-chips/heavyweights, thus proving that contrarian approach is not anymore an inherent feature of these contra funds.
Additionally, expense ratio of contra funds is also on a higher side vis-à-vis equity diversified pack because contrarians have a short-term approach and thus involves a lot of churning in the portfolio which also contributes to the higher expense ratios.
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