A late entrant to the multi-cap category, this fund has consistently beaten its benchmark every one of the five years since launch. After starting out at three stars, it climbed to four stars and stayed at that rating in the last two years. The fund's strategy is based on the belief that different sectors of the economy perform well at different points in time. Sectors are selected based on the top-down analysis and individual stocks are picked up on a bottom-up basis. The fund usually maintains exposure to four-nine sectors. While it concentrates its exposure at the sector level (maximum exposure to a single sector can be 33 per cent), it is diversified at the stock level (about 45 stocks in the portfolio). The flexible-market-cap mandate allows mid/small-cap exposure between 25 and 50 per cent.

The fund hasn't had to encounter a very severe bear market since launch. However, it did manage to contain the market downside in 2011. The fund's one-, three- and five-year returns are 6-10 percentage points ahead of the benchmark. In practice, the fund's large-cap exposure has been 70-77 per cent of the portfolio in the last year or so. With mid-cap holdings at 19-27 per cent, the large-cap weights are slightly ahead of the category.

The fund's limited track record suggests that exposures be taken in small doses to begin with. The fund's differentiated strategy, which results in focus on select sectors, makes it a good option.