Early buying into growth stories helps Franklin India Bluechip Fund stand tall

In the times when markets are vehemently volatile, it makes sense to be invested in a scheme which has sustained various cycles of markets over a long period of time. Franklin India Bluechip Fund is one such scheme. In its 20-years presence in markets, the fund has consistently beaten its benchmark, Sensex by a fair margin. In its 10-years performance period, the scheme has given returns of 13.6% when the Sensex gave 9.4%.

Though the fund is multi-cap in nature, it has strong preference for large-sized companies. An interesting practice that has enhanced the fund’s performance is its buy and hold strategy. The fund holds about 35-40 stocks with an average holding period of close to two years. Besides, the fund is focussed on growth stocks which are available at reasonable valuations. The scheme’s fund manager arrives at growth stories by giving high preference to companies which have high return on capital employed, strong management and robust earnings growth. In doing so, the scheme avoids momentum stocks.



In fact, during the IT boom, it was one of the early funds which identified growth stories and provided handsome returns. At present, the scheme has most large-sized bluechip companies in its portfolio. Given their dominance in their respective sectors, these companies have immense potential to generate superior returns once demand in their sectors picks up. Some of these companies are Hero Moto, UltraTech and Tata Motors.