Sundaram Select Focus mutual fund review: Needs to show more than marginal improvement in returns

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: 30 July, 2002
• Category: Equity
• Type: Large Cap
• AUM (As on 31 August, 2021): Rs 1,398 cr
• Benchmark: NIFTY 50 Total Return Index

What it costs
NAV (As on 28 September, 2021)

• Growth option: Rs 274.4985
• IDCW: Rs 17.9423
• Minimum Investment: Rs 100
• Minimum SIP amount: Rs 100
• Expense ratio (As on 31 August, 2021) (%): 2.24
• Exit load: For units in excess of 25% of the investment,1% will be charged for redemption within 365 days

Fund Manager: Rahul Baijal
Tenure: 4 years, 10 months


Top 5 sectors in portfolio (%)

Top 5 stocks in portfolio (%)

Recent portfolio changes

• New Entrants: Shriram Transport Finance Company. Apollo Hospitals Enterprise, MindTree, Dabur India.
• Complete Exits: Mahindra & Mahindra, ICICI Lombard General Insurance, Phoenix Mills, Maruti Suzuki India.
• Increasing allocation: Ashok Leyland, Bajaj Finserv, Shriram Transport Finance, Sun Pharma. Reliance Inds, Indraprastha Gas, MindTree, Hindustan Unilever.

How risky is it?

Source: Value Research

Should you buy?
Despite its name, the fund was running a very diversified portfolio of large-cap stocks until its repositioning a few years ago. It now runs a very focused portfolio within the large-cap universe, endeavouring to outperform the category through concentrated, high conviction bets. Even for its compact positioning, the fund takes outsized positions in top few bets. It prefers to focus around 3-4 overarching themes and identify best opportunities within these segments. Its performance has been inconsistent over the years amid changes in approach. Its current fund manager has overseen a marginal improvement in return profile but needs to prove execution capabilities over the long term.