Financial19.28

Fund

HY: Eq-oriented

Technology22.36

Healthcare9.17

FMCG9.03

Automobile8.59

7.87

9.638.09

18.66

15.13

Top-5 sectors (%)

42 Mutual Fund Insight April 2014

FUNDANALYST’S CHOICE

Value Research

Assets `603 crore(December 2013)

Launch October 1995

Fund manager Atul Bhole, S Raghupathi Acharya

Walking on a tightropeThe tightrope walk between safetyand returns that a balanced fund hasto perform is not straightforward, butTata Balanced has done this betterthan most of its peers. This fund hashandsomely outperformed the bench-mark as well as the category over thelast ten years. Ten year returns havebeen 16.7 per cent per annum. Thiscompares very well with the categoryaverage of 13.5 per cent and thebenchmark’s 10.7 per cent. The fundranks third among balanced fundsthat have been around for this period.

During this time, it has laggedbehind the category for five calendaryears, but has more than made up forit in the other five. This should makeit obvious to investors that the fund isa tad more adventurous than some ofthe others in our current selection.The likely reason for this is it’s ten-dency to hunt for gains amongst some-what smaller companies. Mid-capexposure has varied sharply between47 and just 7 per cent, but has mostlybeen between 30 and 40 per cent inthe past two years.

Having said that, the fund has stillbeen relatively steady in its lead overthe benchmark, with there being a lag(a small one) in just one year out of thelast ten. Since 2000, Tata Balanced Ahas outperformed the benchmark by acumulative 80+ per cent. In terms ofabsolute returns, the fund has dealtwell with the shock of the global crisisof 2008. It is now about 35 per centhigher than its pre-crisis peak, whichmust be a great comfort to investors.

According to the manager, the fundfollows the growth-at-reasonable-price (GARP) style and stocks areselected on a bottom-up basis backedby rigorous research. The mid-capfocus is on niche businesses backedby high entry barriers like technology,brand franchise, distribution networkand relatively higher growth rate.

Over the last year, the fund hasbeen underweight on metals and ener-gy and occasionally overweight onFMCG. All in all, despite its rakishbearing, Tata Balanced A is a goodchoice for all but the most fearfulequity investors.

TATA BALANCED PLAN A

Fund Hybrid: Equity-orientedRecent Rally - Mar 09, 2009 - Nov 09, 2010Recent Crash - Jan 08, 2008 - Mar 09, 2009

Risk

Return

Quartile1 2 3 4

RecentRally

5-year3-year1-year

RecentCrash

Trailing returns (%)

13.1

110

.67

11.1

77.

48 21

.21

17.2

9 64

.46

55

.79

-44

.78

-42

.86

SIP value (`)900000

600000

300000

0March 1999 February 2014`1,000 invested per month for 15 years amounts to `7,40,715

Amount Invested

Large Cap56.11

Mid Cap36.18

Small Cap7.71

Market Capitalisation (%)

Data as on Feb 28, ‘14, Portfolio related data as on Jan 31, ‘14*YTD as on Feb 28, 2014

Fund History

-44.40 75.04 14.87 -12.02 30.55 7.54 0.76

-43.28 61.16 16.24 -15.98 26.71 5.94 0.04

-39.76 49.30 14.54 -18.12 22.54 6.38 -0.06

1.37 2.50 2.34 2.33 2.32 3.00 -

Year 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 YTD*

21 2

Rating

Quartile ranking

Fund

Category

VR Balanced

Expense Ratio

Fund Style

313 2