The fund has handsomely outperformed the benchmark as well as the category over the last ten years.

1. Financial
19.28
Fund
HY: Eq-
oriented
Technology
22.36
Healthcare
9.17
FMCG
9.03
Automobile
8.59
7.87
9.63
8.09
18.66
15.13
Top-5 sectors (%)
42 Mutual Fund Insight April 2014
FUND
ANALYST’S CHOICE
Value Research
Assets `603 crore
(December 2013)
Launch October 1995
Fund manager Atul Bhole,
S Raghupathi Acharya
Walking on a tightrope
The tightrope walk between safety
and returns that a balanced fund has
to perform is not straightforward, but
Tata Balanced has done this better
than most of its peers. This fund has
handsomely outperformed the bench-
mark as well as the category over the
last ten years. Ten year returns have
been 16.7 per cent per annum. This
compares very well with the category
average of 13.5 per cent and the
benchmark’s 10.7 per cent. The fund
ranks third among balanced funds
that have been around for this period.
During this time, it has lagged
behind the category for five calendar
years, but has more than made up for
it in the other five. This should make
it obvious to investors that the fund is
a tad more adventurous than some of
the others in our current selection.
The likely reason for this is it’s ten-
dency to hunt for gains amongst some-
what smaller companies. Mid-cap
exposure has varied sharply between
47 and just 7 per cent, but has mostly
been between 30 and 40 per cent in
the past two years.
Having said that, the fund has still
been relatively steady in its lead over
the benchmark, with there being a lag
(a small one) in just one year out of the
last ten. Since 2000, Tata Balanced A
has outperformed the benchmark by a
cumulative 80+ per cent. In terms of
absolute returns, the fund has dealt
well with the shock of the global crisis
of 2008. It is now about 35 per cent
higher than its pre-crisis peak, which
must be a great comfort to investors.
According to the manager, the fund
follows the growth-at-reasonable-
price (GARP) style and stocks are
selected on a bottom-up basis backed
by rigorous research. The mid-cap
focus is on niche businesses backed
by high entry barriers like technology,
brand franchise, distribution network
and relatively higher growth rate.
Over the last year, the fund has
been underweight on metals and ener-
gy and occasionally overweight on
FMCG. All in all, despite its rakish
bearing, Tata Balanced A is a good
choice for all but the most fearful
equity investors.
TATA BALANCED PLAN A
Fund Hybrid: Equity-oriented
Recent Rally - Mar 09, 2009 - Nov 09, 2010
Recent Crash - Jan 08, 2008 - Mar 09, 2009
Risk
Return
Quartile1 2 3 4
Recent
Rally
5-year3-year1-year
Recent
Crash
Trailing returns (%)
13.11
10.67
11.17
7.48
21.21
17.29
64.46
55.79
-44.78
-42.86
SIP value (`)
900000
600000
300000
0
March 1999 February 2014`1,000 invested per month for 15 years amounts to `7,40,715
Amount Invested
Large Cap
56.11
Mid Cap
36.18
Small Cap
7.71
Market Capitalisation (%)
Data as on Feb 28,‘14, Portfolio related data as on Jan 31,‘14
*YTD as on Feb 28, 2014
Fund History
-44.40 75.04 14.87 -12.02 30.55 7.54 0.76
-43.28 61.16 16.24 -15.98 26.71 5.94 0.04
-39.76 49.30 14.54 -18.12 22.54 6.38 -0.06
1.37 2.50 2.34 2.33 2.32 3.00 -
Year 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 YTD*
21 2
Rating
Quartile ranking
Fund
Category
VR Balanced
Expense Ratio
Fund Style
313 2