PMS minnows continue their outperformance over the likes of Mukherjea, Samir Arora

NEW DELHI: Lesser-known fund managers, who handle significantly lower amounts of money compared to their star fund manager peers, once again outperformed in April.

Even among them, those with smallcap and midcap heavy portfolios, outclassed their peers holding bigger names on the Street. This follows the resilience of broader market stocks in April.

The best performing strategy of the month was Growth strategy of Avestha Fund Management. It returned 11 per cent, thanks to its heavy investment in broader market stocks. The fund holds names like Apcotex Industries, AU Small Finance Bank, Max Healthcare Institute, Praj Industries and PI Industries, according to data provided by PMSBazaar.

It was followed by Emerging Opportunities strategy of Equitree Capital. The fund primarily invests in smallcap stocks and has returned over 9 per cent in April. It holds stocks like Shakti Pumps India, SP Apparels, Shree Pushkar Chemicals and Fertilisers, Rupa & Company and Shemaroo Entertainment.

“Our investment philosophy is very simple. We are deep value investors focused on investing high quality micro and smallcap companies. We stay invested as long as the growth is visible, valuation stays reasonable and there are no other structural issues with the investment,” said Pawan Bharaddia, Cofounder, Equitree Capital.

He added that while it is important to focus on returns, it is more important to protect the capital first. “We are more biased towards downside risk protection even at the cost of giving up riskier quick returns. And our strategy has been a win-win in the long term.”

Among other top performers were Hem Securities’ India Rising SME Stars and Green Portfolio’s Super 30 and Dividend Yield strategies, which returned 6-9 per cent in April. All three strategies have ample holdings in smallcap stocks.

During the month, Nifty Smallcap 100 fell 1.72 per cent while Nifty Midcap 100 rose 0.63 per cent. Nifty 50, meanwhile, underperformed and fell 2.07 per cent. The resilient performance of small and midcap stocks also helped some of the strategies managed by star fund managers to perform decently during the month.

Saurabh Mukherjea-founded Marcellus’ Little Champs strategy returned 3.44 per cent during the month. Sunil Singhania’s Abakkus Emerging Opportunities delivered 2.7 per cent returns. However, these two were outliers as most other strategies by celebrity fund managers were either flat or delivered negative returns.

Marcellus’ Kings of Capital that invests in bank and financial stocks were among biggest losers, down 3.1 per cent. Prashant Khemka’s White Oak Capital India Pioneers Equity was also down about 3 per cent. Samir Arora’s India Rising, Devina Mehra’s India Super 50 and Marcellus’ Rising Giants were others that returned in red during April.