Franklin India Growth Fund

Dhirendra Kumar

Franklin India Growth Fund, launched in February this year, is a diversified equity fund from the Templeton Asset Management house. The fund charges entry and exit load up to a maximum of 2 per cent varying on the amount of investment where exit load is charged for redemptions within 12 months.

Unlike its previous equity fund, Templeton India Growth Fund, this fund under the Franklin series aggressively seeks to pursue growth investing. The fund scouts for long-term bets in high quality stocks. In line with this, the fund has parked a greater portion of its assets in companies, which are on a high growth curve. It has however stayed diversified with its portfolio, for it believes that this holds the key to good returns in future.

The growth stocks of software, pharma and FMCG account for 32, 13 and 13 per cent of the corpus respectively. While, the fund has so far maintained an average 15 per cent in cash, the rest of the portfolio is spread across automobiles and ancillaries, industrial machinery and diversified companies.

Launched when the markets were caught in the technology frenzy, the fund took positions in software stocks when the markets were near their peak. With the markets going into an immediate tailspin, the net asset value stood significantly eroded even with one-third of its allocation to infotech. The fund lost 35 per cent during the ICE meltdown ending May 2000. Though the fund has lost a fourth of its par value till date, the fund is too young to be judged.

Equity investments are rewarding in the long term for sure. Short-term dynamics apart, the quality and the diversified portfolio of this fund should yield reasonable returns in the long run.

Fund Basics
Objective	Size (Cr)	NAV:23/8/2000	Exit Price	Entry Price	Total Returns(%)
Growth	36.95	7.41	7.41	7.56	-25.90%
Benchmark Comparisons (%)					18/8/2000
	1M	3M	6M	1Yr	3Yr
Fund	-5.8	1.2	—	—	—
Nifty	-7.1	5.2	-20.2	0.7	5.6
Sensex	-8.2	3.7	-24.0	-7.6	0.2
Obj. Avg.	-6.2	2.3	-34.0	14.2	17.5
Top Holdings (31/7/2000)					Net assets (%)
Infosys Tech					8.40
Satyam Computer					7.00
Hughes Software					5.90
Polaris Software					5.00
Hero Honda					4.90
SSI					4.80
HLL					4.00
German Remedies					3.60
Mastek					3.60
Cipla					3.50

Source: Value Research

Fund File

Money

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