PMS Watch: ICICI Pru fund beats benchmark in March, Mukherjea’s fund stays in red

March was another tough month for investors to make money, but the funds of some of the leading portfolio fund managers managed to show the green light.

Nearly 3-year-old Tulsian PMS fund, which covers largecap stocks, gave about 4% returns in March, data collated by PMSBazaar showed.

Abans Investment Managers’ Smart Beta Portfolio fund, which covers midcap stocks, gave 2.25% returns last month. However, the returns have been negative on 3-month, 6-month, and 1-year horizons.

ICICI Prudential’s PIPE PMS, which invests in companies primarily in the mid and small-cap segments, has been more or less consistent and given positive returns over the last 1 year. In March, it gave 2.23% returns, while its 1-year return is 10%.

Niraj Choksi-owned NJ Mutual Fund’s Freedom ETF, Asit C Mehta’s multi-asset fund, Prabhudas Lilladher multi-asset dynamic, and First Global’s Indian multi-asset PMS gave more than 1% returns in March.

If we look at the underperformers, Saurabh Mukherjea’s Marcellus Investments is at the top of the list.

Its over 1-year old ‘Rising Giants PMS’ gave 6% negative returns in March. In this fund, the PMS invests in high-quality mid-sized companies, typically with less than Rs 75 billion market capitalisation.

The popular 3-year-old ‘Little Champ’ PMS, which invests in small-sized companies, gave more than 7% negative returns.

In March, Sensex gave flat returns after seeing fairly high volatile movements, while the BSE smallcap index gave over 1% negative returns. The midcap index was down 0.3%.

Centrum’s PMS funds were also on the list, with 3 of its midcap funds giving 4% negative returns.

Geojit Financial Services’ Dakshin multicap fund has been a consistent underperformer. The fund has given 3% negative returns in March and nearly 7% in the last 6 months.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)