Top MFs: ICICI Prudential Bluechip Fund

Objective

ICICI Prudential Bluechip Fund is a Large Cap mutual fund scheme from ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund. This fund has been in existence for 9 yrs, having been launched in January, 2013. ICICI Prudential Bluechip Fund has ₹30,899 Crores worth of assets under management (AUM) and is medium-sized fund of its category.

Fund Highlights

The Current Net Asset Value of the ICICI Prudential Bluechip Fund as of 18 Jan 2022 is Rs 67.7500 for Growth option of its Regular plan.

Its trailing returns over different time periods are: 36.79% (1yr), 16.91% (3yr), 15.74% (5yr) and 14.7% (since launch). Whereas, Category returns for the same time duration are: 33.68% (1yr), 16.58% (3yr) and 16.06% (5yr).

ICICI Prudential Bluechip Fund shall attract an Exit Load, "Exit load of 1% if redeemed upto 1 year."

Minimum investment required is Rs 100 and minimum additional investment is Rs 100. Minimum SIP investment is Rs 100.

The fund has an expense ratio of 1.08%, which is higher than what most other Large Cap funds charge.

ICICI Prudential Bluechip Fund returns of last 1-year are 31.14%. Since launch, it has delivered 16.25% average annual returns. The fund has doubled the money invested in it every 2 yrs.

Sector wise and company wise holdings

The fund has the majority of its money invested in Financial, Technology, Energy, Construction, Automobile sectors. It has taken less exposure in Financial, Technology sectors compared to other funds in the category.

The fund's top 5 holdings are in ICICI Bank Ltd., HDFC Bank Ltd., Infosys Ltd., Reliance Industries Ltd., Larsen & Toubro Ltd..

Asset Allocation & Portfolio Composition

1. The asset allocation of the fund comprises around 91.94% in equities, 0.55% in debts and 7.52% in cash & cash equivalents.

2. While the top 10 equity holdings constitute around 58.3% of the assets, the top 3 sectors constitute around 53.29% of the assets.

3. The fund largely follows a Growth oriented style of investing and invests across market capitalisations - around 90.66% in giant & large cap companies, 9.02% in mid cap and 0.32% in small cap companies.

Tax Implications

1. Gains are taxed at a rate of 15% (Short-term Capital Gain Tax - STCG) if units are redeemed within 1 year of investment.

2. For units redeemed after 1 year of investment, gains of upto Rs. 1 lakh accruing from those units in a financial year shall be exempted from tax.

3. Gains of more than Rs. 1 lakh will be taxed at a rate of 10% (Long-term Capital Gain Tax - LTCG).

4. For Dividend Distribution Tax, the dividend income from this fund will get added to the income of an investor and taxed according to his/her respective tax slabs.

5. Also, for dividend income in excess of Rs 5,000 in a financial year; the fund house shall deduct a TDS of 10% on such income.

Fund Manager

Rajat Chandak is the fund manager for this scheme. Chandak is a B.Com (H) and MBA. He has been associated with ICICI Prudential AMC since 2008. He also manages schemes like ICICI Prudential Balanced Advantage Fund, ICICI Prudential Long Term Wealth Enhancement Fund and ICICI Prudential Flexicap Fund

Expert Comment

The scheme seeks to generate long term capital appreciation and income distribution to investors from a portfolio that is predominantly invested in equity and equity related securities of large cap companies. It is benchmarked against NIFTY 100.

The scheme's ability to deliver returns consistently is in-line with most funds of its category. However, its ability to control losses in a falling market is below average.