Fund Pick: UTI Equity Fund has consistently outperformed its peers

UTI Equity Fund has featured in the top 30 percentile of CRISIL Mutual Fund Ranking (CMFR) during the past eight quarters ending March 2020. Ajay Tyagi has been managing the fund since January 2016; he has been associated with UTI AMC since 2000. Assets under management (AUM) of the scheme increased over 1.75 times from Rs 5,163 crore in June 2017 to Rs 9,057 crore in May 2020.

The scheme's investment objective is to generate long-term capital appreciation by investing predominantly in equity and equity-related securities of companies across market capitalisation.

Trailing returns

The fund has consistently outperformed the benchmark (Nifty 500 TRI) and its peers (funds ranked under the multi-cap funds category in March 2020 CMFR) in all the trailing periods under analysis. An investment of Rs 10,000 in the fund on August 1, 2005, (inception of the growth plan) would have grown to Rs 64,222 on July 2, 2020, at an annualised rate of 13.27 per cent, compared with the category and the benchmark, which would have grown to Rs 60,076 (12.76 per cent per annum) and Rs 50,952 (11.52 per cent per annum), respectively.

Systematic investment plan (SIP) is a disciplined mode of investing offered by mutual funds through which one can invest a certain amount at regular intervals. A monthly investment of Rs 10,000 in the fund for one and three years would have yielded a positive return vis-à-vis the benchmark’s negative return. A monthly investment of Rs 10,000 in the fund for 10 years, totalling Rs 12 lakh, would have grown to Rs 19.99 lakh (10 per cent annualised returns), as against Rs 18.27 lakh (8.26 per cent annualised returns) in the benchmark, as on July 2, 2020.

Portfolio analysis
 

The fund was previously positioned as a large-cap fund with maximum allocation to large-cap stocks — 85.16 per cent during the past three years. Post Sebi’s re-categorisation, the fund’s allocation to large-cap stocks averaged at 60.26 per cent, while its allocation to mid-caps was 28.26 per cent and small-caps was 9.17 per cent. The fund has stuck to its mandate of investing across market capitalisation with a tilt towards large-cap stocks.
 

The portfolio was diversified across 21 sectors in the past three years. Banks had the highest average allocation of 20.39 per cent, followed by software (15.05 per cent), finance (10.95 per cent), pharmaceuticals (10.72 per cent), and consumer non-durables (8.86 per cent).
 

In the past three years, the fund took exposure to 76 stocks, of which it held 31 stocks consistently. Among the consistently held stocks, Info Edge, Divi's Laboratories, and Jubilant FoodWorks were major contributors to the funds’ performance. Other key contributors included Ipca Laboratories and Nestle India.