A relatively recent entry into a vintage category, this fund has beaten both category and benchmark in five of the seven years since launch. This has earned it a four- to five-star rating for much of the last six years. A well-timed start in the downbeat market of May 2008 helped the fund deliver blockbuster performance in its first year itself.

No index hugger, the fund cherry-picks high-conviction bets. It has a compact and concentrated portfolio, with 50-55 stocks in recent times. This has been maintained despite the asset size burgeoning to over Rs 13,497 crore. The fund has a higher-than-category allocation to large caps; it usually parks 90 per cent plus of its assets in large caps, with 5-10 per cent to mid caps.

ICICI Prudential Focused Bluechip Equity Fund has consistently beaten its benchmark and peers, though the margins of outperformance haven't been large. The fund's one-year return is 3 percentage points ahead of the benchmark and its three- and five-year returns are 4-5 percentage points ahead of the benchmark.

ICICI Prudential Focused Bluechip Equity Fund  only handicap is that it hasn't seen a serious bear market since inception. In 2011 and in 2015, it managed to contain downside well. The fund's manager, Manish Gunwani, has recently quit the fund house. However, the process-driven mandate and a strict large-cap focus make this less of a concern for this fund, especially with the seasoned Sankaran Naren taking over the reins as fund manager.

ICICI Prudential Focused Bluechip Equity Fund is a good fund for conservative investors.