L&T Short term opportunities fund

We are including another fund from the L&T stable as we like a conservative approach on the debt side. The fund is jointly managed by Jalpan Shah and Shriram Ramanathan. Launched in December 2011, this fund is a low-risk option in the short-term funds space. The fund's portfolio has AAA-rated securities largely from high-quality private sector companies and a few public sector entities. Its average maturity is kept around 2 years but at times moves to about 2.5 years or so, when market opportunity demands.

Returns are in line with the conservative approach. It is not a top-performing scheme in the category. However, over 5 years the fund has shown greater stability in returns as compared to the category. While the scheme saw negative return for a brief period during 2013, when global debt and currency markets were thrown off by the announcement of pull back in quantitative easing, it recovered soon and maintained its long-term returns stability. It is meant for investors looking for alternatives to fixed deposits, rather than top-of-category returns. Its steady accrual portfolio has delivered 8.75% annualised returns over a period of 5 years. At 0.70%, expense ratio of the scheme is not high.