Fund review: Franklin India Bluechip Fund

With focus on large-sized companies, the scheme has consistently rewarded investors not only in bull phases of markets, but also during bear hugs. Conservative investors can consider investing in Franklin India Bluechip Fund. The scheme has a performance record of close to 24 years. This shows that it is one of the few schemes which has seen a large number of market cycles.The scheme's fund managers Anand Radhakrishnan and Roshi Jain also follow a conservative approach in selecting stocks. They hardly deviate from Franklin India's strategy, which focuses on companies that have high return on capital employed, sound management and business model and the ability to deliver sustainable earnings growth.

The fund managers stay away from momentum stocks and once a stock is selected, they follow a buy-and-hold strategy with an average holding period of close to two years for an individual stock. This strategy has helped the scheme give good returns consistently and beat its benchmark, Sensex, by a considerable difference. The buy-and-hold strategy also helps maintain diversification in the scheme's portfolio.In the past five-year and ten-year periods, the scheme has delivered 13.3% and 11.02 % returns, respectively, while BSE Sensex has delivered 10.09% and 7% % returns, respectively, in the same period.

In the past six months, the fund managers have bought and increased expsoure to a large number of value picks across sectors. Though these stocks have not given superior returns in the near term, the longterm potential of these companies is evidently bright. A few prominent names are HUL, GAIL, Lupin, TCS and M&M.