Fund Pick: Canara Robeco Equity Tax Saver is a consistent outperformer

Canara Robeco Equity Tax Saver Fund was launched in March 1993. It has featured in the top 30 percentile of the Equity Linked Savings Schemes (ELSS) category of CRISIL Mutual Funds Ranking (CMFR) for the past 12 quarters ended December 2020. The fund has been managed by Cheenu Gupta and Shridatta Bhandwaldar since March 2018 and October 2019, respectively. The month-end assets under management (AUM) of the fund grew from Rs 898 crore in January 2018 to Rs 1,476 crore in December 2020.

The investment objective of the scheme is to provide long-term capital appreciation by predominantly investing in equities to facilitate subscribers to seek tax benefits as provided under Section 80-C of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

Trailing returns

The fund has consistently outperformed the benchmark (S&P BSE 100 TRI) and its peers (funds ranked under the ELSS funds category in the December 2020 CMFR) in all the trailing periods under analysis.

An investment of Rs 10,000 in the fund on February 2, 2009 (inception of the regular plan of the fund), would have grown to Rs 84,309 on January 28, 2021, at an annualised rate of 19.45 per cent, as compared to the category and the benchmark, which would have grown to Rs 65,906 (17.02 per cent per annum) and Rs 61,638 (16.37 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. Monthly investment of Rs 10,000 for the last 10 years in the fund, totalling Rs 12 lakh would have grown to Rs 26.05 lakh (14.84 per cent annualised returns), as compared to Rs 23.31 lakh (12.76 per cent annualised returns) in the benchmark as on January 28, 2021.

Portfolio analysis

During the past three years, the fund has actively managed allocations across market caps, while maintaining predominant allocation to large-cap stocks. The fund maintained an average 69 per cent allocation to large-cap stocks. Exposure to mid-cap and small-cap stocks averaged 16.55 per cent and 11 per cent respectively during this period.

The portfolio was diversified across 30 sectors in the past three years. Banks had the highest average allocation of 21.6 per cent, followed by software (10.93 per cent), consumer non-durables (10.32 per cent), finance (9.28 per cent), and consumer durables (6.23 per cent).

The fund took exposure to 162 stocks in the past three years. In this period, Infosys, HDFC Bank, Divi's Laboratories, Reliance Industries, and ICICI Bank have been the major contributors to the fund’s performance. Among the major contributors, HDFC Bank has been held consistently.