Kotak Standard Multicap Fund: Fund Review

High valuations of large-sized companies, limited universe of midcap stocks and a certain amount of uncertainty in earnings’ growth in the small-cap space warrants investments in multi cap schemes as they provide the flexibility to fund managers to shift investments among various market capitalisations depending upon valuations and clarity of earnings growth.

Among multi-cap schemes, Kotak Standard Multicap is a stable performer in longer duration cycles of markets. The scheme’s fund manager Harsha Upadhyaya has been careful in the construction of the portfolio. In comparison with its peers, the scheme’s portfolio has lower exposure to small-sized companies and slightly higher exposure to mid-sized companies. Close to 74% of the portfolio is in blue chips and large-sized companies followed by 24% exposure to mid-sized companies.

In the phase of economic recovery, the rally in blue chips and well-placed mid-sized companies begins earlier than small-cap companies as they show faster earnings growth than relatively smaller peers. This is a sensible strategy as the capacity to withstand competition is higher in mid-sized companies than small-sized ones.


In the past five-year and ten-year periods, the scheme has given returns of 10.7% and 13.4% respectively, while its peers in the category have given average returns of 8% and 11% respectively, over the same periods.

Portfolio change (past 6 months)

New entrants	Complete exits	Increase in allocation
Balkrishna Indus	The Anup Engineering	Interglobe Aviation
IndusInd Bank	Maruti Suzuki India	Jindal Steel & Power
Thermax	Bharat Financial Inclusion	Container Corporation of India

Returns (%)

Period	CAGR Return (%)	Sector Infrastructure AVG CAGR	SIP CAGR return
1 year	15.88	11.86	20.61
3 years	13.63	10.83	11.19
5 years	10.74	7.96	13.05

Portfolio composition (in %)

	Fund	Peers		Fund	Peers
Giant	56.15	54.39	Giant	1.93	8.67
Large	17.62	14.74	Large	-	0.21
Mid	24.30	23.70	Return*	13.8

Source: Accord Fintech, Compiled by ETIG Database; *Since launch

Expert Take
Vishal Dhawan, Founder, Plan Ahead Wealth Advisors
Kotak Standard Multicap Fund has done very well across multiple parameters like rolling returns, expense ratio and risk ratios, with a stable management team. The fund manager Harsha Upadhyaya avoids momentum stocks and invests in growth stocks which do well in the long term. Investors can consider the scheme with a horizon of at least five years.