Kotak Tax Saver Mutual Fund Review: Healthy Risk-Return Profile

ET Wealth works with Value Research to analyze the best mutual funds. We take a look at the main fundamentals of the fund, its portfolio and its performance to help you make an informed investment decision.

How has the fund performed

Where the fund invests

Basic facts

• Release date: November 23, 2005
• Category: Equities
• Type: ELSS
• AUM (as of September 30, 2021): Rs 2,296 cr
• Benchmark: NIFTY 500 Total Return Index

What it costs

NAV (as of October 26, 2021)

• Growth option: Rs 71.92
• IDCW: Rs 26.92
• Minimum investment: Rs 500
• Minimum SIP amount: Rs 500
• Spending rate (as of September 30, 2021) (%): 2.04
• Output load: 0

The head of financing: Harsha Upadhyaya

Duration: 6 years

Top 5 sectors in the portfolio (%)

Top 5 stocks in the portfolio (%)

Recent portfolio changes

• New entrants: Bajaj Finance, Balrampur Chini Mills, Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC, Ambuja Cements, Sun Pharma, United Spirits.
• Complete outings: GR Infraprojects, HDFC Life Insurance Co. Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Polycab India, Shree Cement.
• Growing allowance: National Bank of India. Balrampur Chini Mills, Bharti Airtel, State of Gujarat Petronet.

How risky is it?

Source: value research

Should you buy

This ELSS offering maintains an inclination of large caps like many of its peers, while maintaining a significant presence in mid caps. The fund manager emphasizes bottom-up stock selection with top-down thematic overlay to identify the best opportunities. The portfolio is well diversified with good exposure in its best bets. The fund manager is comfortable taking high active positions in individual bets. However, the fund’s performance has been rather uneven in recent years, unable to show consistent performance over long periods. Even so, good downside protection ensured a healthy risk / reward profile. It needs to be more consistent to be among the top picks in its class.