A late entrant to the multi-cap category, this fund has been a consistent performer in difficult markets. It has beaten the benchmark and the peers in all the seven years since launch.

Kotak Select Focus Fund believes that different sectors of the economy perform varyingly over different economic cycles. It attempts to take focused bets on select sectors that are likely to outperform. The fund generally maintains four-nine sectors in its portfolio, selected on a top-down basis.

Kotak Select Focus Fund large-cap exposure has climbed above 80 per cent in recent times, leading to an overweight position relative to the category. Mid caps make up about 18 per cent of the portfolio. The fund can take concentrated bets at the sector level (maximum exposure at 33 per cent) complemented by a diversified approach at the stock level (generally around 50 stocks in the portfolio). The flexible market-cap mandate allows mid/small-cap exposure between 25 and 50 per cent but the fund has typically maintained it at 20 per cent or less lately. The fund selects companies that have proven business models, which are scalable in nature, where capital efficiency is high and that have reasonable competitive edge in their respective areas of business.

Kotak Select Focus Fund performance is yet to be tested in a big market crash, given its limited record, but it did manage to contain downside well in 2011, losing less than the benchmark and peers. The fund's three- and five-year returns are a healthy 7-8 percentage points ahead of the benchmark returns and 3-4 percentage points above category returns.