In my last column, we had commenced with a discussion on the category of Balanced Advantage Funds (BAF). Let us now proceed to turn the spotlight on a few randomly selected funds with relatively smaller AUMs in this space.
These include Edelweiss Balanced Advantage Fund, HSBC Balanced Advantage Fund, Nippon India Balanced Advantage Fund, Tata Balanced Advantage Fund, DSP Dynamic Asset Allocation Fund and Sundaram Balanced Advantage Fund.
Edelweiss Balanced Advantage Fund has an AUM of R 9,392 crore. The current Asset allocation mix is nearly 63% in Equity, 17% in Arbitrage and 20% in Debt. Its top equity holdings are in the Financial Services, IT and Consumer goods sectors. The performance of this fund over a 1-year, 3-years and 5-years time period are 11.18%, 14.42% and 12.31%, respectively.
HSBC Balanced Advantage Fund has an AUM of R1,374 crore. The current Asset allocation mix is nearly 47% in Equity, 20% in Arbitrage and 33% in Debt. Its top equity holdings are in the Government Securities, Banks and Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology sectors. The performances of this fund over a 1-year, 3-year and 5-year time period are 11.10%, 8.54% and 8.30%, respectively.
Nippon India Balanced Advantage Fund has an AUM of R6,957 crore. The current Asset allocation mix is nearly 45% in Equity, 23% in Arbitrage and 32% in Debt. Its top equity holdings are in the Banks, IT Software and Diversified FMCG sectors. The performance of this fund over a 1-year, 3-year and 5-year time period are 10.62%, 13.98% and 10.26%, respectively.
Tata Balanced Advantage Fund has an AUM of R7,476 crore. The current Asset allocation mix is nearly 51% in Equity, 15% in Arbitrage and 35% in Debt. Its top equity holdings are in the Agricultural Food, Automobiles and Banks sectors. The performances of this fund over a 1-year and 3-year time period are 11.78% and 13.84%, respectively.
DSP Dynamic Asset Allocation Fund has an AUM of R3,398 crore. The current Asset allocation mix is nearly 40% in Equity, 25% in Arbitrage and 35% in Debt. Its top equity holdings are in the Auto Components, Banks and Finance sectors. The performances of this fund over a 1-year, 3-year and 5-year time period are 9.32%, 9.30% and 8.76%, respectively.
Sundaram Balanced Advantage Fund has an AUM of R1,533 crore. The current Asset allocation mix is nearly 57% in Equity, 10% in Arbitrage and 33% in Debt. Its top equity holdings are in the Banks, IT Software and Automobiles sectors. The performances of this fund over a 1-year, 3-year and 5-year time period are 9.52%, 11.75% and 10.16%, respectively.
While past records do not in any way guarantee future performance, the discernible trend hitherto is that BAFs have lived up to their positioning as a Fixed Deposit Plus product. To select the right BAF that matches an investors specific requirement though, is best left to an expert.
Ashok Kumar
Head of LKW-India. He can be reached at ceolotus@hotmail.com
(Views expressed here are personal)