ICICI Prudential FMCG's sector-specific focus has very been fruitful over the past few years. But being a pure sectoral fund increases the danger of losing out on opportunities that may emerge in other segments in the future

Being a sectoral fund, ICICI Prudential FMCG is high on risk. But what adds to the risk is that its portfolio is far too concentrated, even with respect to its benchmark index. The scheme has invested in only nine stocks, which it has been holding for some time now. The portfolio concentration is the outcome of the fund managers' call to avoid investing in discretionary stocks of the sector and rather concentrate on consumer staples.

With this strategy finding favour with the markets, especially in the past couple of years, this scheme has turned out to be the highest return generator in the equity mutual fund category, surpassing even returns of Gold ETFs over the past one, two and three year periods. But having said this, the concentrated exposure makes the scheme vulnerable to unforeseen events of the stock market. The scheme's performance is thus likely to be subdued, if say, the industrial cycle were to pick up.