With the Sensex scaling 30,000 levels, risk-averse investors can find solace in large-cap oriented Invesco India Growth fund, which has a good track record of containing downsides during volatile phases.
The fund has managed to beat its benchmark, the S&P BSE 100, over the last one, three and five years.
Over the last three years, the fund has outperformed its benchmark on a one-year rolling return basis – 86 per cent of the times. But the year 2016 was particularly a bad patch for the fund — when it temporarily underperformed due to being overweight on the IT sector. However, since the start of 2017, it’s back on its toes.
The fund’s strategy has a ‘growth’ bias with 80-85 per cent of its portfolio in ‘growth’ oriented stocks.
Also, the fund currently has a higher preference for mid-caps than its benchmark as well as its peers. It has 18 per cent exposure to mid- and small-cap stocks in its portfolio as against 3 per cent for its benchmark and 11 per cent for other large-cap funds.
IndusInd Bank, Maruti Suzuki and HDFC Bank are among its top picks. In the last one year, it has added exposure to Reliance Industries (4.1 per cent), Indian Oil Corporation (3.1 per cent) and Britannia Industries (3.1 per cent).
Concentrated portfolioIt has completely got off the counters of Axis Bank, ITC and BPCL. The fund usually goes for a relatively concentrated portfolio than its peers. Currently, it has 37 stocks in its portfolio as against 52 stocks of SBI Bluechip, 50 stocks of ICICI Prudential Focussed Bluechip Equity and 40 stocks of Franklin India Bluechip fund.
Maruti Suzuki (delivering 62 per cent return), IndusInd Bank (46 per cent) and HDFC Bank (35 per cent) were among the largest contributors to its overall returns in the last one year.
In contrast, IT stocks such as Infosys and TCS were a drag.
As compared to its benchmark composition, it is currently overweight in the sectors of technology, auto, healthcare, metals and chemicals while remaining underweight on energy and FMCG.
The fund recently got a new fund manager, Taher Badshah, and is currently jointly managed by Taher and Amit Ganatra.