SBI Bluechip Fund has managed to beat its benchmark and category in each of the last five years. A creditable show in 2014 and 2015 lifted its ratings to five stars and it has since held onto these ratings.

Despite its name, the fund tilts towards a multi-cap approach in its allocations. It invests in the top 100 companies in terms of market capitalisation, with the flexibility to invest up to 20 per cent in mid-cap stocks. The minimum market capitalisation it owns is the last stock in the BSE 100, which currently has stocks in the range of Rs 2,500-6,000 crore. In the last one year, the fund has had lower large-cap allocations (75-80 per cent) than those of peers, with 15-20 per cent in mid-cap stocks. This is likely to have propped up performance relative to the category. The maximum overweight/underweight on a sector, relative to the benchmark, is capped at 8 per cent and for individual stocks, at 5 per cent.

SBI Bluechip Fund has trailed its benchmark and category by about 1-2 percentage points in the last one year, probably on account of the quality bias. Over three and five years, the returns are 6-7 percentage points higher than the benchmark returns and 5 percentage points more than the peer returns. The investment style leans towards growth investing. The fund does take debt calls, with the non-equity portion amounting to 15-16 per cent in the beginning of 2017 but falling to 8-9 per cent levels in the recent months.

It lost less than its benchmark in the market falls of 2011 and 2015 after slipping behind the index in 2010.