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Fund Pick: Zurich India Equity Fund

Background
Zurich India Equity Fund (ZIEF) (earlier Centurion Open-end) is an aggressive growth fund. The fund paid a 20 per cent dividend in November 1999 in its dividend option. ZIEF carries a 1.5 per cent entry load for all investment below Rs 5 crore and no load for investment above Rs 5 crore. The fund has no exit load. The minimum investment in the fund is Rs 1000.

Performance
ZIEF has given an annualised return of 23.71 per cent since its launch against a 7.19 per cent of the Sensex. Launched just before the start of a long bear phase, the fund initially outperformed the indices and then slipped down on the performance charts under-performing key equity benchmarks in the falling market since 1995.

A sizeable part of the fund's portfolio turned illiquid. At its worst, the fund's net asset value fell to a low of Rs 5.15 in December 1996. The fund started with a Rs 55 crore asset base. Followed by its under-performance, it faced redemption. The fund's portfolio was totally restructured in December 1996. The fund is totally out of illiquid stocks.

The sustained restructuring of the fund in 1998 yielded results in the rising market during 1999. Currently, the fund is almost fully invested in equities. The fund now has 46 per cent allocation to software stocks, 22 per cent to consumer companies, 7 per cent to pharma stocks and 6 per cent to automobiles.

The fund is spread over 19 stocks with Infosys and Mastek being the biggest bets accounting for 20 per cent each, followed by 8 per cent in Vikas WSP. The biggest bet in pharma is on Pfizer accounting for 7 per cent of the fund's assets. Besides, the fund has a stake in publishing major Macmillan (4 per cent of the fund's assets).

Outlook
Zurich India Equity Fund is actively managed and sharply focused. It is expected to achieve aggressive growth from equities. The small asset base of the fund is an advantage, though this will add to the fund's volatility.

Fund Basics
Objective	Size	NAV: 25/02/2000	Exit Price	Entry Price	Total Returns
Growth	55.61cr	28.25	28.25	28.67	24%
Benchmark Comparisons (%)					31/1/2000
	1M	3M	6M	1Yr	3Yr
Fund	7.4	34.5	64.6	145.9	64.9
Sensex	4.0	17.1	14.6	57.0	15.5
Nat. Index	9.6	38.8	44.6	98.1	24.7
Obj. Avg.	6.7	42.1	62.2	116.0	35.5
Top Holdings (31/12/99)					Net Assets (%)
Mastek					19.66
Infosys Technologies					19.66
Vikas Wsp					8.44
Pfizer					7.33
Pidilite Industries					5.30
HDFC					4.73
Himatsingka Seide					4.14
Visualsoft (I)					4.06
Cummins India					3.80
M R F					3.77
Macmillan India					3.56
Container Corpn. Of India					3.34
Hindustan Lever					2.64
Swaraj Mazda					2.38
Hughes Software					2.38
Madras Cements					2.14
Archies Greetings					1.95
Ashok Leyland					0.34
Others					0.18
20Th Cen Finance Corp.					0.16

Source: Value Research

Mutual Funds

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