This fund has managed strong outperformance of the index for the last one year and three years. It has managed a steady climb in the rankings in the last ten years. A consistent show has helped it retain a four-star ranking in almost all of the years since 2007, no mean achievement in choppy-market conditions during this period. This fund is focused on the top 100 companies in terms of market cap and on outperforming the benchmark over a one- to three-year period. The idea is to outperform the benchmark so that the fund also beats the category average automatically. The objective is good risk-adjusted returns with an eye on the tracking error. The fund is now invested in a mix of growth and cyclical stocks.

The good show for one year has lifted the three- and five-year returns too to result in a strong outperformance of the category by 2-3 percentage points on a CAGR basis. On an annual basis, this long-standing fund has outperformed both its benchmark and category for 11 of the last 13 years, which is a remarkable achievement. Year 2008 proved to be difficult for the fund, with the NAV taking higher losses than the benchmark in the bear market. But since then it has proved good at managing downside in the down market of 2011. The same manager, R Srinivasan, has been at the helm since 2009, imparting stability to the fund's style and strategy. The fund invests 85-90 per cent of its assets in large caps, with a slightly higher mid-cap bias than the category.

The fund has a good long-term record and improving returns.