Only 18 PMS schemes beat benchmark in October; 30 percent fell into the red

Indian market made a comeback in October with Nifty rising over 3 percent on a month-on-month basis. However, uncertainties on both global and domestic front upset the broader markets as Nifty Smallcap slipped into the red after four consecutive months of gain. Nifty Midcap clamped on, albeit marginally.

The relative underperformance in the month of October was also visible in the returns of Portfolio Management Schemes (PMSes), as only 10 percent of the strategies managed to outperform Nifty during the month.

Of the 193 PMS schemes PMSBazaar.com looked at, only 18 posted gains greater than the benchmark. Alder Capital's Alder Capital PMS was the top gainer rising 7.06 percent on a month-on-month basis. The multicap-focused scheme, which is managed by Hemant Patel and Rakhi Prasad, focuses on consumption centric B2C businesses that are scalable, possess durable competitive advantage and demonstrate outstanding management culture.

FMCG, Financials, Services and Healthcare constitute nearly 70 percent of Alder Capital PMS' portfolio, spread evenly across large, mid and small caps. The fund also has a cash and cash equivalent reserve of over 18 percent.

Marcellus' Consistent Compounders (6.7 percent), Trivantage Capital Management's Super Six (6.7 percent) & Resurgent Financial Equity (5.9 percent), Compound Everyday Capital's Long Term Focused Value (5.11 percent) were the other top performing schemes. The majority of the schemes that outperformed the benchmark were from the multicap space. Largecap and sector funds also had a strong showing in October. Meanwhile, only one smallcap-focused fund managed to beat the benchmark during the month.

In comparison, 58 or 30 percent of the schemes generated negative returns in the month of October. Interestingly, five of the 10 worst performing schemes were also multicap-focused.

Basant Maheshwari Wealth Advisers' Equity Fund was the biggest loser falling 6.44 percent during the month of October, data collated by PMSBazaar.com showed. Green Portfolio's MNC Advantage (-5.31 percent), Right Horizon's Minerva India Underserved (-5.1 percent), Marcellus' Little Champs (-4.7 percent) were the other worst-performing schemes of October.