Kotak Tax Saver mutual fund review: Healthy risk-return profile

ET Wealth collaborates with Value Research to analyse top mutual funds. We examine the key fundamentals of the fund, its portfolio and performance to help you make an informed investment decision.

How the fund has performed

Where the fund invests

Basic facts

• Date of launch: 23 November 2005
• Category: Equity
• Type: ELSS
• AUM (As on 30 September 2021): Rs 2,296 cr
• Benchmark: NIFTY 500 Total Return Index

What it costs
NAV (As on 26 October 2021)

• Growth option: Rs 71.92
• IDCW: Rs 26.92
• Minimum Investment: Rs 500
• Minimum SIP amount: Rs 500
• Expense ratio (As on 30 September 2021) (%): 2.04
• Exit load: 0

Fund Manager: Harsha Upadhyaya
Tenure: 6 Years

Top 5 sectors in portfolio (%)

Top 5 stocks in portfolio (%)

Recent portfolio changes

• New Entrants: Bajaj Finance, Balrampur Chini Mills, Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC, Ambuja Cements, Sun Pharma, United Spirits.
• Complete Exits: G R Infraprojects, HDFC Life Insurance Co. Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Polycab India, Shree Cement.
• Increasing allocation: State Bank of India. Balrampur Chini Mills, Bharti Airtel, Gujarat State Petronet.

How risky is it?

Source: Value Research

Should you buy?
This ELSS offering maintains a large-cap tilt like many of its peers, while retaining sizeable presence in mid-caps. The fund manager places emphasis on bottom-up stock selection with a top-down thematic overlay to identify best opportunities. The portfolio is well diversified with healthy exposure in its top bets. The fund manager is comfortable taking high active positions in individual bets. However, the fund’s performance has been rather patchy in recent years, unable to put in a consistent showing for long stretches of time. Even so, decent downside protection ability has ensured a healthy risk-return profile. It needs to deliver more consistently to be among the top picks in its category.