Axis Long Term Equity Fund - Buy Online

The scheme aims to generate regular long term capital growth from a diversified portfolio of equity and equity related securities

A recent entrant, Axis Long Term Equity has proved its mettle by always staying two steps ahead of its benchmark and peers. The fund has been the top ranker in the ELSS category in 3 out of 5 years since inception. We like the fund for its high conviction levels and ability to add alpha through a concentrated focus on successful mid-cap calls.

Equity linked Savings Schemes are usually not known for their good mid-cap calls. But this fund, with a high allocation to mid-cap stocks in its portfolio, has delivered significant out performance. Starting out mainly with large-cap stocks in end 2009, the fund has added aggressively to its mid-caps in the last three years with mid-cap allocations of 30-40 per cent, consistently higher than the category.

The portfolio is compact and displays high conviction levels, featuring 36-40 stocks in recent months, with top five stocks accounting for nearly a third of the portfolio. This fund does not take debt or cash calls and was 98 per cent invested as of end June 2014.

The fund's performance sparkles no matter the time frame taken into consideration. Returns of 21 per cent CAGR since inception is superior to peers in this period which delivered about 14 per cent. The fund's 3 year return of 22.7 per cent has surpassed its benchmark BSE 200 by a full 10 percentage points. The participation in the recent bull run has been equally impressive with a 1-year return of 55 per cent against 30 per cent for the benchmark and 43 per cent for its category. This return has been attained with moderate doses of risk at a beta of 0.86. The fund's small-cap bets are very limited. Churn in the portfolio obviously isn't high with a portfolio turnover of 54 per cent.

The multi-cap strategies may work well in a secular bull market. With its stellar performance record in the last five years, this is a good fund to buy even for investors who aren't really hankering after tax savings.