Aditya Birla Sun Life Frontline Equity Fund Direct Growth is one of the best large cap funds for investors to invest in 2024. It was established by Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund in January 2013.
The fund is benchmarked against the S&P BSE 100 India TRI and holds a moderately low risk and expense ratio among the categories.
Aditya Birla Sun Life Frontline Equity Fund has completed 11 years from inception and currently holds an AUM of Rs. 26046.41 crore. The direct-growth plan has yielded 15.09% CAGR per year since its inception.
If you had invested 1 lakh in 2013, your fund would have grown to 4.77 lakhs in 2024.
The minimum lump sum to start investments in this fund is Rs. 100 and the minimum SIP (systematic investment plan) is Rs. 100 per month.
Aditya Birla Sun Life Frontline Equity funds comprise 4 plans,
- Direct Growth Plan (We speak about this plan in this article)
- Regular Growth
- Direct – IDCW (Dividend Plan)
- Regular – IDCW (Dividend Plan)
As a reader, you will find all the details about this fund that you need to know before investing. Here we are sharing the complete details of this fund that could make any investor make the right decision.
Aditya Birla Sun Life Frontline Equity Fund Direct Growth NAV:
The current NAV for Aditya Birla Sun Life Frontline Equity Fund direct growth is 480.69 (as of February 9, 2024).
The NAV of other plans of the same Funds is
- Regular Growth – 439.14
- IDCW – Regular Plan – 37.41
- IDCW – Direct Plan – 88.61
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.
Regular plans are best if you need a professional to manage your fund.
Aditya Birla Sun Life Frontline Equity Fund Direct Growth Performance:
Aditya Birla Sun Life Frontline Equity Fund is an open-ended scheme that invests in large-cap companies (Top 100 companies in the Indian share market per share of 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 15.09% per annum since inception vs.18.33% to S&P BSE 100 (benchmark). The category average has performed at a CAGR of 15.66%.
Aditya Birla Sun Life Frontline Equity Fund Direct Growth has underperformed than the category average in the last 2 and 5 years of performance.
The fund has grown 43.06% 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.
This fund is a good choice for long-term outperformance if you want to outperform the category average or benchmark over the medium or long term.
The fund has outperformed in 2 and 5 years returns with a CAGR of 14% and 16.43%, respectively.
In the last 2 years of performance, the Aditya Birla Sun Life Frontline Equity Direct Growth Fund has performed 0.63% higher than the benchmark and 0.66% lower than the category average.
In the last 5 years of performance, the Aditya Birla Sun Life Frontline Equity Direct Growth Fund has performed 0.2% higher than the benchmark and 0.3% lower than the category average.
The same fund has underperformed than benchmark and category for the last 1 year.
Once again, the performance calibration proves that this fund should be invested if your goal is mid or long-term to outperform the category average or benchmark.
Fundamental Analysis Ratios:
- P/B – 3.76
- P/E – 24.73
Aditya Birla Sun Life Frontline Equity Fund Direct Growth Portfolio:
The portfolio of this scheme includes Equity (97.6%), Cash (2.1%) and Debt (0.4%).
Equity Holdings (97.79% of total portfolio):
The fund holds 79 company stocks and is subdivided into three types of classes (as per market capital),
- Large Cap Companies – 73.28%
- Mid Cap Companies – 9.68%
- Small Cap Companies – 1.9%
- Others – 12.96%
Debt Holdings (0.35% of total Portfolio):
- GOI – 0.35%
Cash Holdings (0.35% of total Portfolio):
- Reverse Repo – 1.23%
- TREPS – 0.29%
- MF Units – 0.15%
- Margin – 0.12%
- Net Receivables – 0.08%
Fund Portfolio across Industries:
- Financial – 29.9%
- Technology – 10.1%
- Energy – 9.7%
- Automobile – 8.5%
- Construction – 10.1%
- Healthcare – 6.1%
- Consumer Staples – 7.3%
- Others – 18.3%
Top 20 Holdings:
- HDFC Bank Ltd – 8.34%
- ICICI Bank Ltd – 8.23%
- Infosys Ltd – 6.11%
- Reliance Industries Ltd – 5.91%
- Larsen & Toubro Ltd – 4.97%
- Bharti Airtel Ltd – 3.49%
- Axis Bank Ltd – 3.09%
- Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd – 2.58%
- NTPC Ltd – 2.56%
- ITC Ltd – 2.52%
- State Bank of India – 2.48%
- Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd – 2.37%
- HCL Technologies Ltd – 2.32%
- Tata Motors Ltd – 2.12%
- Bajaj Finance Ltd – 2.00%
- Ultratech Cement Ltd. – 1.93%
- SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd – 1.68%
- DLF Ltd – 1.64%
- Titan Co Ltd – 1.52%
- Maruti Suzuki India Ltd – 1.33%
The Top 5 securities of this scheme cover 35.76% of the overall portfolio, and the Top 20 securities cover 75.62%.
Aditya Birla Sun Life Frontline Equity 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 the 3-year risk factors of the fund vs. category average.
- Standard Deviation – 13.67 vs. 13.92
- Alpha – 0.83 vs (-) 0.26
- Beta – 0.94 vs 0.94
- Sharpe Ratio – 0.82 vs 0.75
The fund has moderately low risk compared to the category average and benchmark.
It also provides better risk-adjusted returns compared to the category average.
Aditya Birla Sun Life Frontline Equity Fund Expense Ratio:
The expense ratio plays a crucial role and impacts the performance of any mutual fund scheme.
The expense ratio or TER of HDFC Top 100 Fund Direct Growth is 0.99%.
The TER of the category average is 1%. This is an important reason why the fund has outperformed both the category average and benchmarks in the long term (5+ years).
Here is the expense ratio detail for the same fund with different plans:
- Regular – Growth – 1.66%
- Regular – IDCW – 1.66%
- Direct – IDCW – 0.99%
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.
Aditya Birla Sun Life Frontline Equity Fund Fund Managers:
Every mutual fund investor must know about the fund manager and their history.
Two managers manage this fund. Mahesh Patil and Dhaval Joshi.
Mahesh Patil has been managing this fund since January 2013. Before joining Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC, he worked at Reliance Infocom Ltd., Motilal Oswal Securities, and Parag Parikh Financial Advisory Services Ltd.
Apart from this fund, he manages 10 more schemes at Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC.
Dhaval Joshi has been managing this fund since November 2022. Before joining Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC, he worked at Sundaram Mutual Fund, Emkay Global Financial Services, and Asit C Mehta Investment Intermediates Ltd. Apart from this fund, he manages 55 more schemes in Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC
Most of the funds managed by these two gentlemen have a good track record of performance.
Conclusion:
- The expense ratio of this fund is lower than the category average.
- Portfolios are well diversified, with 79 equity securities and a few cash components.
- Aditya Birla Sun Life Frontline Equity Fund is designed for investors with long-term goals like a dream home, a child’s higher education, retirement planning, and marriage.
- This fund is one of India’s top picks in large-cap mutual funds.
- Performance since inception is low compared to the category average.
- Hold moderately low-risk and better risk-adjusted returns compared to the category average.
- The fund manager has an exceptional track record.