Conservative investors, doubting the sustainability of the unbridled market rally in the past year, must be in search of a safe haven in case the stocks falls substantially. For such investors, it makes sense to be with dividend-yield schemes that invest in companies whose dividend yield is higher than those in most key indices, such as the Nifty 50, the Sensex, or the Nifty Dividend Opportunities 50 index. Hence, when markets fall, these stocks protect the downside in returns.

Among dividend-yield schemes, BNP Paribas is a consistent performer. Managed by Karthikraj Lakshmanan and Abhijeet Dey, the scheme has beaten its benchmark and peers by a reasonably good margin. In the past three and five-year periods, the scheme has delivered 17.1% and 21.2% returns, while the scheme's benchmark index Nifty 200 has given 11% and 16% returns, respectively, during the same period.

At present, the BNP Paribas Dividend Yield Fund scheme has a wide range of high dividend-yield stocks, such as Hindustan Zinc, Bharat Electronics and PowerGrid Corporation.