More than half of the PMS schemes, led by midcap strategies, out-perform the benchmark

Nifty shone bright in the month of September, with the large-cap benchmark going up by 2.84 per cent. The domestic markets continued to hit new highs. In this bullish time, Portfolio Management Services (PMSes) delivered robust returns. As many as 140 PMSes beat the Nifty's gain in September, establishing for yet another month the ability of PMS to generate alpha. Midcap PMSes led the charge, followed by some thematic, multicap and small & midcap strategies. As the economy opens up, smaller firms are expected to do well and this has pushed investors towards such stocks.

Best strategies of the month

September saw some great shows by PMSes, with some of the best performing strategies giving more than triple the benchmark returns. The performance of the top-10 schemes saw 5 strategies delivering more than 9 per cent.

The top 5 schemes were led by Invesco Caterpillar, a midcap PMS, generated the best return of 9.97 per cent. It was followed by Green Portfolio Dividend Yield 9.93 per cent, Bellwether Long Term Growth 9.27 per cent, Arihant Electrum Midsmallap 9.03 per cent and Karma Capital Advisors Long Only India Public Equity 9.00 per cent.

The next 5 schemes (6th to 10th rank) are Master Portfolio Services Vallum India Discovery 8.55 per cent, Right Horizons Super Value 8.51 per cent, Envision Capital Services India Value Portfolio 7.90 per cent, Nafa Asset Managers Emerging Bluechip 7.46 per cent and Green Portfolio Super 30 Dynamic 7.37 per cent.

As you can see all the top-10 schemes gave between 2 to 3 times of the benchmark gain in September 2021.

Best categories

Large & Midcap - There are 6 schemes in this category. The best performing strategy in this category was Bonanza Growth (up) 7.30 per cent and LIC MF Value Equity+ (up 3.58 per cent). The average gain of this category was 2.53 per cent.

Largecap - There are 23 schemes in the largecap segment, with average gain of 2.44 per cent i.e. underperformance compared to Nifty 50. The 3 best largecap PMSes were Nippon India Absolute Freedom up 6.40 per cent, Renaissance Oppo. Portfolio up 6.18 per cent and Asit C mehta ACE 50 up 5.6 per cent

Midcap - There are 22 midcap PMSes in this basket, with average gain of 4.86 per cent i.e. under-performance compared to NSE Nifty Midcap 100 (up 6.9 per cent). The 3 best PMSes in midcap space are Invesco Caterpillar up 9.97 per cent, Master Portfolio Services Vallum India Discovery up 8.55 per cent and RightHorzons Super Value up 8.51 per cent.

Multiasset - There are 5 PMSes in this category. The top performers include First Global Indian Multi Asset 2.91 per cent and Morningstar Active Aggressive Plus 2.76 per cent.

Multicap - This is the biggest PMS category. There are as many as 146 PMSes in this space. Thanks to midcap stocks, multicap PMS category clocked 3.18 per cent gain i.e. underperformance compared to BSE 500 (up 3.29 per cent). The best performers include Bellwether Capital Long Term Growth 9.27 per cent, Karma Capital Advisors Long Only India Public Equity 9.00 per cent and Right Horizons Flexi Cap 7.25 per cent.

Small & Midcap - There are 18 PMS schemes in this space. The average gain in September 2021 was 4.28 per cent. The 3 best performers are Arihant Electrum Midsmallcap 9.03 per cent, Equirus Securities Long Horizon Fund 7.21 per cent and Geojit Advantage Portfolio 7.14 per cent.

Smallcap - There are 16 schemes in this category. The average return of Smallcap PMSes was 4.08 per cent, slightly underperforming the BSE Smallcap 4.30 per cent. The best 3 performers are Nafa Asset Managers Smallcap up 6.97 per cent, Equitree Emerging Opp. up 6.03 per cent and Ambit Emerging Giants up 5.55 per cent.

Thematic- There are 7 thematic PMSes. The best performers in this niche are Green Portfolio Divident Yield up 9.93 per cent, Green Portfolio Super 30 Dynamic up 7.37 per cent and Right Horizons Alphabets India Prime up 6.68 per cent.