Before I start off on any analysis in this segment, even at the cost of a repetitive bore I will put forth this disclaimer. All fund schemes are taken as direct. However, even if you are a direct investor, hire a financial advisor that you trust who can guide with investments. Pay for your advice.

Fund category definition: Funds with minimum 35{76b947d7ef5b3424fa3b69da76ad2c33c34408872c6cc7893e56cc055d3cd886} portfolio allocation to Large Cap (top 100 by market cap size) stocks and 35{76b947d7ef5b3424fa3b69da76ad2c33c34408872c6cc7893e56cc055d3cd886} allocation to Mid Cap (101-250 by market cap size) stocks. Remaining 30{76b947d7ef5b3424fa3b69da76ad2c33c34408872c6cc7893e56cc055d3cd886} is as per fund management.

Benchmark: Nifty LargeMid Cap 250 TRI with return of 2.47{76b947d7ef5b3424fa3b69da76ad2c33c34408872c6cc7893e56cc055d3cd886} in December 2021

All data as on: 31st December, 2021

Summary

This is personally one of my favourite fund categories. I have often been caught saying like an ad salesperson – stability of large cap, growth potential of mid caps.

But, when you look at the AUMs, you will see it’s not much of a favourite of investors apart from Mirae. In fact, it really is Mirae Emerging Bluechip which first got the AMC much popularity. Even now investors with high value SIP refuse to let go of it, concentration risk in the portfolio be damned.

This month sees the sudden entry of Sundaram Large & Mid Cap Fund thanks to it’s acquisition of Principal AMC. Turned out to be a good month for the category with only DSP, Mirae and HDFC under performing the benchmark.

In the expense ratio, there is a substantial 0.19{76b947d7ef5b3424fa3b69da76ad2c33c34408872c6cc7893e56cc055d3cd886} reduction for HDFC from a very expensive 1.38{76b947d7ef5b3424fa3b69da76ad2c33c34408872c6cc7893e56cc055d3cd886} to a shade lower at 1.19{76b947d7ef5b3424fa3b69da76ad2c33c34408872c6cc7893e56cc055d3cd886}.

Nothing very substantial in terms of the stocks held.

Market Cap Allocation

There is a bit of market cap allocation shake-up of which quite a bit is attributable to the recent recategorisation.

For me, Axis remains a surprise here. In my understanding, the Large & Mid Cap funds are mandated to have a minimum 35{76b947d7ef5b3424fa3b69da76ad2c33c34408872c6cc7893e56cc055d3cd886} allocation to Large Caps and Mid Caps. I have always understood this to mean domestic stocks. However, yet again I see the Large Cap number surprisingly low at 17.92{76b947d7ef5b3424fa3b69da76ad2c33c34408872c6cc7893e56cc055d3cd886}.

There’s been quite a reduction in Small Cap with a simultaneous increase in Mid Cap also. While Clean Science, CG Power, Aptus Value Housing and Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC have been recategorised as Mid Cap, Vardhman, Teamlease, Chemplast and Symphony have been shown the door.

Kotak saw a big shift from Mid Cap to Large Cap, largely with SRF getting promoted and having a chunky weight of 4.19{76b947d7ef5b3424fa3b69da76ad2c33c34408872c6cc7893e56cc055d3cd886}. ABSL has seen a very similar reshuffle with Mindtree and SRF moving up the ladder from Mid Cap to Large Cap.

Within HDFC, while Bharat Electronics has moved up from Mid to Large Cap, Apollo Tyres has moved down to Small Cap taking overall Mid cap allocation lower.

Top 5 sectors

Banks and Software remain the two favourites for the fund category. However, Axis doesn’t really seem to favour banks that much. They have thrown in more of their weight behind NBFCs mostly via Bajaj Finance.

SBI sees a fair reduction in their banking allocation by exiting their miniscule allocation of 0.06{76b947d7ef5b3424fa3b69da76ad2c33c34408872c6cc7893e56cc055d3cd886} in Federal Bank and a chunky 1.82{76b947d7ef5b3424fa3b69da76ad2c33c34408872c6cc7893e56cc055d3cd886} in Kotak Mahindra Bank.

HDFC sees a big shift in Auto with a new position of 2.87{76b947d7ef5b3424fa3b69da76ad2c33c34408872c6cc7893e56cc055d3cd886} in Maruti Suzuki, taking that sector from out of top 5 right upto the second highest.

Top 10 stocks

If you are looking for uniqueness, then Axis has to be right up there in this category. They seem to steer clear of most of the usual suspects, as seen from the initial few blank rows.

Most of the clustering remains prevalent in the tried and tested players – ICICI Bank, Infosys, HDFC Bank, SBI, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finance, Axis Bank etc.

Apart from that, there doesn’t seem to be too many changes in the top 10 stocks.