Axis Bluechip Fund: Fund review

A wave of uncertainty has engulfed markets due to weak demand and earnings uncertainty. In such a situation, it makes sense to stay with bluechip companies as they provide a better shield in times of economic slowdown given their dominant market share, pricing power and low debt.

This serves well for conservative investors looking for safer options that deliver returns greater than fixed deposits.

Among schemes that have very high exposure to blue chips and have been consistently beating the benchmark index and peers by a fair margin is Axis Bluechip. The scheme invests close to 87% of its portfolio in bluechip companies. Of these, the top six companies make up 61% of the scheme’s portfolio.


A large part of the portfolio (45%) is invested in financials which include private sector banks such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank. Given their better asset quality and retail focus than PSU banks, this strategy works in generating higher or providing stable returns in the longterm.

This element of spotting companies which have high asset quality is one of the themes of the scheme’s portfolio. And it has paid off. In the past three-year and five-year periods, the scheme has given 12.6% and 11.3% returns, respectively, while its peers have given average returns of 8.4% and 8.7%, respectively, in the same periods.

Portfolio Change (past 6 months)

New Entrants	Complete Exits	Increase in Allocation
Bharti Airtel	Britannia Inds	Larsen & Toubro
Gruh Finance	Wipro	Divis Laboratories
Shree Cement		HDFC

Returns (in %)

Period	CAGR Return	SIP CAGR Return	Large cap- AVG CAGR (%)
1 Year	0.67	6.12	-3.22
3 Year	13.05	12.45	8.73
5 Year	11.18	11.84	10.08

Returns peer comparison (in %)

Scheme Name	1-Year	3-Year	5-Year
Canara Robeco Bluechip Equity Fund	-1.48	9.17	9.52
Edelweiss Large Cap Fund	-4.74	7.95	9.70
ICICI Prudential Bluechip Fund	-2.35	8.36	9.72

Source: Accord Fintech, Compiled by ETIG Database

Expert Take
Kaustubh Belapurkar, Director Fund Research, Morningstar India
The fund manager Shreyas Devalkar looks to construct a portfolio of high conviction large cap stocks. Across sectors, it is clear Devalkar's focus is on quality of assets. This provides a distinct edge which has helped maintain the scheme's superior performance. Conservative investors looking to invest in a large cap fund and gain from stable returns can opt for this fund.