The month of April saw AIF bounce back strongly after a relatively moderate showing in March. Key indices were up reasonably during the month. The Nifty TRI was up 1.24% during the month, while the broader market BSE 500 TRI delivered a stronger 3.44%.
![AIF Performance: Most category 3 long-only AIFs deliver superior returns in April](https://resources.pmsbazaar.com/blogs/2024/AIFApr24Cover.jpg)
The entire category 3 long-only Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) pack went past the key benchmark, Nifty 50 TRI, while most outperformed the BSE 500 TRI in April.
Among the top 10 funds in the category, many strategies managed to give double-digit returns and many times the returns of the standard benchmarks during the month.
Category 3 long-only funds seek to invest in companies traded in the exchanges and are available with ample liquidity. They do not have any serious mandate restrictions and are thus unrestrained in their stock choices based on the fund manager’s view of the markets.
During the month, all 67 category III long-only funds managed to outperform the Nifty 50 TRI, while 59 strategies delivered better returns than the BSE 500 TRI.
The long-short category’s performance was a bit mixed. We had 14 such funds delivering more than the Nifty 50 TRI. Against the BSE 500 TRI, 4 funds outperformed in April.
Closed-ended funds did very well in the long-only category with six of the top 10 being such schemes. However, open-ended strategies continued to dominate the toppers’ chart in the long-short category during the month with nine in the top 10.
Top 10 long-only performers
In April, the top long-only funds delivered much higher returns than the standard benchmarks – Nifty 50 TRI and BSE 500 TRI. The category delivered strongly with 6.52% returns in the month.
As mentioned earlier, six of the top 10 long-only funds were closed-ended, while the remaining three were open-ended.
Here is the list of the top 10 funds in the category 3 long-only funds segment.
Taking the top position was the Finavenue Growth Fund from A8 Finsight with 19.26% returns for the month.
Samvitti Capital’s Alpha Fund came second with 12.74% returns in April. The fund seeks to generate absolute returns by positioning itself on the long and short sides of the markets with different strategies.
D&B India Opportunities Multi-cap Fund from Dalal and Broacha Stock Broking took the third spot with 11.4% returns during the month.
Rational Equity Trust’s Rational Equity Flagship Fund I came fourth with 11.34% returns in April. The fund takes a flexicap and sector-agnostic approach to selecting stocks.
Taking the fifth position was the First Water Capital Fund with 11.14% returns in the month.
The category’s performance vis-à-vis the Nifty 50 TRI and BSE 500 TRI are depicted below.
The performances of the top 10 long-only funds and the comparison with Nifty 50 TRI and BSE 500 TRI for April are depicted below.
Top 5 long-short funds
Long-short funds use complicated investment strategies. They try to factor in several quantitative and qualitative metrics to decide their portfolio picks and use sophisticated strategies involving derivatives and equities. These long-short funds look to reduce portfolio volatility while ensuring healthy and steady returns over the medium to long term.
In April, funds in the segment gave 2.01% on average. As many as 14 funds outperformed the Nifty 50 TRI, while four went past the Nifty 50 TRI. Barring one, all the other top funds were open-ended.
The top five long-short AIF schemes for the month of April are depicted below.
![](https://resources.pmsbazaar.com/blogs/2024/Cat3LSApr24-1.jpg)
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