Franklin India Taxshield

As we enter the final quarter of the current fiscal, tax saver funds are now in focus. If you haven't made your tax saver investment yet, you could use the next two months to invest in tax saver mutual fund schemes.

If you are looking for a fund with a consistent track record, old warhorse Franklin India Taxshield is an option to consider. Of course, equity tax saver schemes are only for those with a moderately high risk appetite and investment horizon of at least three years, since you cannot redeem your investment before that. Even though the lock-in period is three years, this fund will better suit investors with a minimum time frame of five years. Lumpsum investment may be a better option, given the lock-in period.

Launched in 1999, Franklin India Taxshield is among the most consistent performers in the equity linked saving schemes (ELSS) category. Over the last five years, the scheme's daily one-year return has been higher than its benchmark, the Nifty 500 Index, almost 90 per cent of the time. It scores well on a risk-adjusted performance basis too, with a Sharpe ratio of 0.93. While this is a tad lower than that of peers such as Axis Long Term Equity (1.05) and Birla Sun Life Tax Relief 96 (0.97), it is higher than the average of funds in the category of 0.8.

While the fund has delivered benchmark-beating returns across three, five and ten-year time frame, its performance over a one-year period slipped due to the correction in banking and pharma stocks during September-October 2016. The fund has marginally reduced exposure to these two themes.

Strategies that worked

The fund has been able to contain downsides well during market falls and this has been on three counts.

One, higher large-cap slant compared to other funds in this category cushioned it during turbulent phases.

Second, the fund's focus on quality stocks and strategy to stay away from momentum stocks also possibly aided performance during down cycles. Moving into defensive themes such as pharma and IT also shielded the fund from volatility.

Likewise, during recovery rallies too, the fund has managed to beat the benchmark by a considerable margin. Right sector shifts aided performance during the pull-back rallies.

Consider this — during the August 2013-March 2015 period, the fund gained nearly 110 per cent. This is higher than the 80 per cent gain for the benchmark during the same period.

Increasing exposure to cyclical themes such as financials, automobiles and industrials provided a leg-up to the fund's performance.

The fund has managed good returns despite a relatively high expense ratio of 2.48 per cent. Peer funds such as Axis Long Term Equity (1.98 per cent), ICICI Prudential Long Term Equity (2.3 per cent) and Birla Sun Life Tax Relief 96 (2.29 per cent) have had a lower expense ratio.

Over a nine-month period, the fund has increased exposure to cyclicals such as financials, oil and gas, power and auto.

Stability in the economy post remonetisation and recovery thereafter should aid the fund's performance. It has also reduced exposure to pharma stocks, which have been bogged down by regulatory woes.

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