UTI Master Value Unit Plan

Dhirendra Kumar

Launched in July 1998, Master Value Unit Plan is a five-year close-ended scheme which invests predominantly in B-group stocks of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The fund does not offer any repurchase facility and trades infrequently on the BSE and NSE.

In its brief history of one and a half years, Master Value Unit Plan has given an annualised return of 34 per cent against 28.6 per cent by Nifty Total Return Index (dividend adjusted). The fund stacked up 114 per cent during calendar 1999 with a well-diversified portfolio spread across sectors that seems to have been constructed with a bottom-up approach.

However, the fund in the past did not strictly adhere to its stated investment objective of investing at least 80 per cent in B-group companies and till the end of 1999, A-group companies constituted around 30 per cent of the portfolio.

As on March 31, 2000, the fund's pack of leading sectors comprised of software (9.5%), hospitals (9.35%), printing & stationary (6%), pharma (6%), engineering (5.7%) and fast moving consumer goods (5%). The fund also brought down its allocation of A-group companies to 13 per cent. Between March and May of this year, when the markets went into a tailspin, the fund after touching a high of Rs 25.92, lost almost 40 per cent.

In a depressed market, the fund has higher downside than the broad market given its stock orientation of mid and small-cap stocks. However, given the reasonably good quality portfolio, the fund should yield above average returns through its tenure.

Fund Basics
Objective	Size (Cr)	NAV: 12/7/2000	Mkt Price	Prem/Disc	Total Returns (%)
Growth	150.5	18.13	—	—	34.00%
Benchmark Comparisons (%)					30/6/2000
	1M	3M	6M	1Yr	3Yr
Fund	4.2	-17.2	-20.9	26.4	—
Nifty Tot. Ret.	6.7	-3.1	0.2	29.0	8.8
Sensex	7.1	-5.0	-5.1	14.7	3.7
Obj Avg	9.6	-18.2	-13.2	35.3	12.4
Top Holdings (31/3/2000)					Net assets (%)
Apollo Hospitals					9.35
Vikas WSP					6.58
Blue Dart Express					5.13
Electrosteel Castings					4.79
Sri Adhikari					4.77
Tata Donnelley					4.60
Siemens					4.34
Gramophone					4.23
Orchid Chem					3.94
Sonata Software					3.15
Moser Baer					2.55
Pidilite Industries					2.51
HCL Tech					2.47
ITC					2.43
Global Tele-Systems					2.26

Source: Value Research

Fund File

Money

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