Axis Blue Chip Fund Direct Growth Review

Axis Blue Chip Fund Direct Growth

An investor can choose a large cap mutual fund is Axis blue chip fund direct growth. It was incorporated by Axis Mutual funds in January 2013.

The fund is benchmarked against S&P BSE 100 India TRI and holds the least risk and expense ratio among the category.

Axis blue chip fund is nearing 10 years from inception and currently holds an AUM of Rs. 32,322.11 Crores. The direct-growth plan has yielded 15.48% CAGR per annum since its inception.

If you had invested 1 lakhs in 2013, your fund would have grown up to 4 times.

The minimum lump sum to start investments in this fund is Rs. 5000, and the minimum SIP (systematic investment plan) is Rs. 500 per month.

Axis blue chip funds comprise of 4 plans,

  • Direct Growth Plan (We speak about this plan in this article)
  • Regular Growth
  • IDCW (Income Distribution cum Capital Withdrawal) – Previously known as Dividend plan.

Here we are sharing the complete detail of this blue chip fund that could make any investor the right decision before investing.

Axis Blue Chip Fund Direct Growth NAV:

The current NAV of Axis Blue chip fund direct growth is 49.07 (as on August 5, 2022).

The NAV of other plans of the same blue chip funds are,

  • Regular Growth – 43.59
  • IDCW – Regular Plan – 17.57
  • IDCW – Direct Plan – 21.66

During the NFO period, all 4 plans had a NAV of Rs. 10. By the above distinction, you could find the Direct-Growth plan helps grow your funds at higher rates than other plans.

Axis Blue Chip Fund Direct Growth Performance:

Blue chip mutual funds is an open-ended scheme that invest in large-cap companies (Top 100 companies of Indian share market per market capital).

This fund’s objective was to outperform the benchmark (S&P BSE 100 TRI) with comparatively low risk.

The fund has performed at a CAGR of 15.48% per annum since inception vs. 10.18% to S&P BSE 100 (benchmark). The category average has performed at a CAGR of 13.73%.

Axis Blue chip mutual fund direct growth performance
Image from Moneycontrol.com

Axis blue chip fund has outperformed its category average in 3 and 5 years of performance.

Even the fund has grown 56% higher than the Nifty 50 index since its inception (January 2013).

A short comparison of the fund’s performance with the benchmark and category average follows.

Axis Blue Chip Fund Direct Growth vs Bench Mark vs Category Average

The fund has outperformed in 3 and 5 years returns with a CAGR of 16.3% and 14.65%, respectively.

In 3 years of performance, the axis blue chip direct growth fund has yielded 0.36% higher performance than the benchmark and 2.4% higher than the category average.

In the last 5 years of performance, the axis blue chip direct growth fund has yielded 14.81% higher performance than the benchmark and 27.39% higher than the category average.

The same fund has underperformed than benchmark and category for the last 1 and 2 years of performance.

Once again, the performance calibration proves that this fund should be invested if your goal is mid or long-term to outperform category average or benchmark.

Fundamental Analysis Ratios:

P/B – 4.32

P/E – 28

Axis Blue Chip Fund Portfolio:

The portfolio of this scheme includes equity (86.5%), Debt (13.9%), and Cash (-0.4%).

Equity Holdings(86.5% of total portfolio):

The fund holds 38 company stocks, and are sub-divided into three type of classes (as per market capital),

  • Large Cap Companies – 74.07%
  • Mid Cap Companies – 2. 45%
  • Small Cap Companies – 0%
  • Others – 9.98%

Debt Holdings (13.9% of total Portfolio):

  • Commercial papers (CPs), Certificates of Deposits (CDs), Tearsury Bills – 13.08%
  • Fixed Deposits – 0.57%

Fund Portfolio across Industries:

  • Financial – 40.2%
  • Technology – 16.6%
  • Services – 8.7%
  • Energy – 6.4%
  • Healthcare – 6.1%
  • Construction – 5.7%
  • Others – 16.2%

Top 20 Holdings:

  1. ICICI Bank – 9.36%
  2. Bajaj Finance Ltd – 7.91%
  3. Infosys Ltd – 7.54%
  4. HDFC Bank Ltd – 7.08%
  5. Avenue Supermarket Ltd – 6.40%
  6. Tata consulting services Ltd – 6.15%
  7. Reliance industries Ltd – 5.57%
  8. Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd – 4.22%
  9. Bharti Airtel Ltd – 2.44%
  10. Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd – 2.41%
  11. Larsen & Turbo Ltd – 2.27%
  12. Ultratech Cement Ltd – 2.11%
  13. Divis Laboratories – 2.04%
  14. Asian Paints (India) Ltd – 1.78%
  15. Bajaj Finserv Ltd – 1.75%
  16. Pidilite Industries Ltd – 1.67%
  17. Titan Company Ltd – 1.57%
  18. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd – 1.55%
  19. Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd – 1.53%
  20. Gland Pharma Ltd – 1.43%

Top 5 securities of this scheme covers 38% of the overall portfolio, and Top 20 securities covers 77%

Axis Blue Chip Fund Direct Growth Risk Ratios:

While investing in mutual funds, you should know the methods of analyzing the risk ratio of any fund.

Standard deviation, Alpha, Beta, and Sharpe ratio are the parameters we usually calculate to predict the volatility and risk on returns.

Here are the details of 3 years risk factors of the fund vs. category average.

  • Standard Deviation – 19.03 vs. 21.64
  • Alpha – 0.37 vs (-) 0.85
  • Beta – 0.82 vs 0.97
  • Sharpe Ratio – 0.65 vs 0.62

The fund has low risk compared to the category average and benchmark.

It also provides better risk-adjusted returns compared to the category average.

Axis Blue Chip Fund Expense Ratio:

Expense ratio plays a crucial role and impacts the performance of any mutual fund scheme.

The expense ratio or TER of Axis blue chip fund direct growth is 0.51%.

TER of the category average is 1.11%. This is an important reason why the fund has outperformed both category average and benchmark in the long term (5+ years).

Here is the expense ratio detail of the same fund with different plans,

  • Regular – Growth – 1.69%
  • Regular – IDCW – 1.69%
  • Direct – IDCW – 0.52%

So, the best plan to choose from this scheme is Direct-Growth. The fund has zero exit loads when redeemed post 1 year, and 1% if redeemed within 365 days.

Axis Blue Chip Fund Managers:

Every mutual fund investor must know about the fund manager and their history.

Two managers manage this fund. Shreyash Devalkar, and Hitesh Das.

Shrevash Devalkar has been managing this fund since 23rd November 2016. He holds about 16+ years of experience in the capital market. Before joining Axis AMC, he worked in IDFC Securities Ltd, IDFC AMC, and BNP Paribas AMC.

Apart from this fund, he manages 1 more schemes in Axis AMC (1 Equity scheme)

Hitesh Das has been managing this fund since 2nd November 2020. He is basically a Equity Research analyst with 9 years experience in financial market. Before joining Axis AMC, he worked in Barclays and Credit Suisse Securities India

Apart from this fund, he manages 16 more schemes in Axis AMC (10 Equity schemes, 3 solution-oriented schemes, 3 international funds)

Most of the funds managed by these two gentlemen has good track record in performance.

For more details, have a look at official fact sheet.

Conclusion:

  • Axis blue chip fund is designed for investors with long-term goals like retirement planning, a dream home, child higher education, and marriage.
  • This fund is one of India’s top picks in large-cap mutual funds.
  • Three years, five years, and performance since inception are high compared to benchmark and category average.
  • The expense ratio of this fund is one of the least in the category.
  • Portfolios are well diversified within 38 equity securities and a few cash components.
  • Hold low risk and better risk-adjusted returns compared to the category average.
  • Fund managers track records are awesome.