SBI Bluechip Fund

SBI Bluechip runs a fairly diversified portfolio not limiting to large cap. It has a sizeable mid-cap allocation. The fund had a disappointing start but has pulled up its socks and climbed steadily in the rankings since 2012.

Strategy: The fund is predominantly a large cap fund with the flexibility to invest upto 20 per cent of its assets in midcap stocks. The fund also restricts risk by monitoring tracking error. The fund can take upto 8 percent additional weight in a sector against its benchmark and upto 4 per cent on a stock. These constraints impose both sector and stock discipline on the fund which helps to reduce risk.

In practise, the fund has maintained about 70 per cent exposure to large-cap stocks and rest in mid caps in the last one year. The fund has kept away from small-caps.

The fund is usually invested to the extent of over 90 per cent. In the last one year, debt exposures of 2 to 10 per cent have also been used to smooth out the volatility. The fund started out with a large asset base of nearly `3000 crore, lost assets when its performance slowed and has recently seen new inflows on the back of its improving show. Assets now stand at a mid-sized `1140 crore (September 2014).

Performance: This fund put up a middle of the road performance in the first four years of its existence with returns from 2007 to 2010 just about keeping pace with the benchmark and lagging the category. But with the fund altering both its investment strategy and stock selection process from 2011, the improvement in performance has been dramatic. The fund has convincingly beaten both benchmark and category in the last three years.

What we don't like: The improvement in the fund's returns have coincided with a bullish market; the returns are yet to be tested in a market crash.

Why Invest? The fund's well articulated mandate guiding its portfolio strategy and its performance in recent years inspire confidence.