MUMBAI, November 16: Alliance '95 has witnessed an appreciation by 21.27 per cent for the quarter ended September 30. The fund's equity exposure has come down from 74.75 per cent to 72 per cent while the fixed income exposure has come down from 24.53 to 17.90 per cent. As on September 30, the fund had around 10.10 per cent in cash equivalent, up from 0.74 per cent in June. The fall in debt exposure as a per cent of net assets is mainly due to the sharp rise in the price of equities in its portfolio.

As the unit capital has merely grown by 5.7 lakhs units during the period, most of the cash has been generated by equity dis-investments. The focus of the dis-invesment during the first half of 1997 seems to have been on weeding out under-performing equity investments. Most of the dis-investments were made in the mid-cap segment. Moreover, there has been a consolidation of holdings with the fund bringing down the number of stocks in its equity portfolio form 51 in March to 31 in September.

Alliance '95 has seen no major increase in exposure between June and September, 1997 although the fund added HLL, BoB, HDFC Bank and Rain Calcining to its equity holdings between March and June. BoB and Rain Calcining had come out with their IPOs during the period. BoB is among the top ten exposures as on September 30. The fund has maintained its exposure in these stocks for the quarter ended September.

Moreover, between March and September, the company added to its holdings in BHEL, Bata, Glaxo, ZEE, Kriloskar Cummins and Carrier Aircon. Carrier remains among the top ten exposures. Interestingly, the fund increased its expoure sharply in Wartsila Diesel (10,000 shares) in June (from 300 in March) to completely divest the same by September.

For the quarter ending September, the fund has moved out of eight stocks including Gramophone India, NRB Bearings, Nippon Denso, Sanghvi Movers, Kamar Chemicals and Lloyds Rockfibers. Moreover, the process of dis-investment in HCL-HP, LML and Marico Industries was completed during the quarter ended September. Marico incidentally was one of the top holdings in December 1996. The fund also seems to be on its way out in Birla Yamaha. The fund has also divested in Satyam Computers and Container Corporation. These stocks were among the top ten exposures in June. Though Satyam remains among the top exposures, Container Corporation has slipped in the weightage.Top industry exposure as on September 30 are information technology (38.31 per cent), banking and finance (8.71), and capital goods (6.61). In March, the top industry exposure were information technology (18.93), consumer non-durables (10.25) and capital goods (9.33). The fund had a 5.19 per cent exposure in finance and banking in March.

IT, as on September, accounted for 53 per cent of the equity exposure. Though the exposure has gone up, there has been a consolidation in the first half of the fiscal with the fund moving out of HCL-HP, Bull Power and Integrated Tech. Today the four IT stocks, Infosys, Digital, Mastek and Satyam are among the top ten holdings. In fact, Infosys accounts for 21.7 per cent of the total net assets and 30.1 per cent of the equity exposure. The top ten equity holdings account for 56 per cent of the net assets and 77 per cent of the equity exposure.

Alliance '95 seeks steady capital growth through balanced exposure in equity and debt. Alliance '95 has been the top performing balanced fund over the past year. It has appreciated by 37.39 per cent in 1997. The fund distributes over 90 per cent of its profits as dividend.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.