When market turned topsy-turvy, even PMSes of Mukherjea, Samir Arora failed to beat Street

The volatility in the market kept everyone guessing and even the best of the investing minds could not beat the benchmarks. Portfolio Management Sevices or PMS funds, managed by the likes of Samir Arora, Shankar Sharma and Saurabh Mukherjea failed to beat Nifty50 returns.

Data collated by PMSBazaar shows Marcellus’ Consistent Compounders, which has holdings like Asian Paints, Bajaj Finance, Dr Lal Pathlabs, HDFC Bank and Page Industries, returned a negative 4.74 per cent during the month. In the last three months, it is down by 3.81 per cent and in the six month period, up 3.89 per cent.

Mukherjea, self admittedly, is not that worried about the fall in the market that is taking a hit on his portfolio. In a recent interview to ET NOW he said he bought some big names such as Pidilite and Titan and midcap names such as Page, Relaxo and Dr Lal Pathlabs during the last month.

“It’s a super tasty environment for loading up on great compounders,” he added.

At the same time, Marcellus’ Kings of Capital, which invests primarily in banks and non-banking financial services (NBFC) stocks beat the market and returned 3.27 per cent in the month thanks to a rally in financial stocks. Though in the three month period, it is still down over 5 per cent.

Indian Entrepreneurship strategy, managed by Bharat Shah’s ASK Investment and having assets worth Rs 19,181 crore, was one of the biggest losers of the month, returning a negative 5.43 per cent. In the three-month period, it is down by 5 per cent and in six months up 4.55 per cent. The fund invests in those quality stocks where promoters have their skin in the game. Its top holdings are Bajaj Fin twins, APL Apollo Tubes, TCS, Aarti Industries and Divi’s Labs.

ASK’s India Select Portfolio and Growth Portfolio strategies, both investing across market segments, also reported negative returns of about 4 per cent each in January. In the last six months, their performances have left a lot to be desired.

ETMarkets.com

PMS fund managed by Prashant Kemka’s White Oak returned a negative 3.8 per cent, while Samir Arora’s India Rising portfolio saw minus 3.65 per cent returns. PMS funds of Shankar Sharma’s First Global fared relatively better but could not beat the market.

The market has been jittery given foreign investors continue to withdraw money from Indian equities. The impact is deeper on those companies that have high FII ownership. However, consistent mutual fund flows have helped the market from being impacted too much. During January, the 30-share flagship Sensex dipped 0.41 per cent while BSE Midcap fell 1.43 per cent and BSE Smallcap index 0.78 per cent.

PMS funds are tailored for the richie rich investors with high entry bars. They try to build long-term returns but as the market is consolidating and the easy bull run is over, not every strategy is likely to succeed.