Monthly Performance Roundup – May 07 

From Research Desk

Indian equity markets continued to make gains as the overall bullish sentiment surrounding the India growth story kept pushing the benchmark indices further up in the month of May. The upward rally helped BSE Sensex to settle at 14,544.46 as compared to the previous month closing of 13872.37, which is absolute return of 4.84%. The S&P CNX Nifty was on a record breaking spree as well, as it touched an intra day high of 4,325.80 on the last trading day of the month, before closing at 4,297.05, appreciating by 5.09% during the month. The rally was fuelled by rally in the large cap companies and certain scrips like Reliance industries, ABB Ltd and HDFC bank also joined the party, by recording their life time high prices.

The month started with an optimistic nod, by resisting global cues and managed to outperform global indices and major Asian countries. The other factor which added the pace was good control on the inflation figure, which slipped into a declining phase, throughout the month. WPI as on 4th may stood at 5.77% but and settled at 5.06% by the end of the month.

Equity oriented Mutual fund in general outperformed the markets, and the average returns for the month stood at 6.51%. The robust, Indian economy saw an upward movement which helped to push up the equity investors pace.

The mutual fund industry saw a substantial increase in size and witnessed a net inflow of Rs. 63,704 crores for the month, which is a 18.18 per cent rise compared to the last month’s inflows. Reliance Mutual Fund maintains the top position amongst the AMCs, and added Rs 10315.44 crores to its burgeoning asset base, to take its total asset base to Rs 59143.47 crores. ICICI Prudential mutual fund bags the second position with Rs. 50703.01 crores of assets under management as on May, 2007.

Equity Diversified Funds

(One month return as on 31/05/2007)

In the equity diversified funds category, overall 172 schemes were selected through the fund category. ABN AMRO Opportunities Fund acquired the top slot with monthly returns of 11.44 per cent, which is a handsome outperformance, considering the category as a whole managed 6.02 per cent returns. It is followed by Tata Equity P/E Fund which generated monthly returns of 10.98 per cent.

Equity Linked Saving schemes

In the ELSS category, over all 30 schemes were selected, of which Taurus Libra Taxshield, acquired the top position with monthly returns of 10.13 per cent. PRINCIPAL Tax Savings Fund came in at the second spot with returns of 10.04 per cent for the month.

Balanced Funds category

In the Balanced fund category, Birla SunLife 95 acquired the top slot.  The scheme outperformed 23 schemes in its category with monthly returns of 9.45%. It was followed by DSP ML Balanced Fund which generated monthly returns of 8.25%.

Monthly Income Plans

In the MIP category, over all 41 schemes were considered, out of which HSBC MIP - Savings Plan, acquired the top position with monthly returns of 2.67%, which is almost 100% of category average which showed the returns of 1.37%, followed by Birla SunLife MIP which noted the monthly returns of 2.46%.

Income Scheme

In the Income scheme category, over all 47 schemes were selected, of which Birla SunLife Income Fund – Growth acquired the top position, followed by LIC Bond Fund – Growth which generated monthly returns of 1.08%. The category delivered average returns of 0.49%.

Liquid Funds Schemes

Escorts Liquid Plan surprisingly acquired the top position with monthly returns of 0.81%, as against the category average returns of 0.66%, followed by ING Vysya Liquid plus Fund which generated monthly returns of 0.79%.