NEW DELHI, May 22: A complete portfolio overhaul by the ICICI Asset Management Company has started paying dividends. The net asset values of its equity schemes - ICICI Power and ICICI Premier - have gone up by 35 and 20 per cent, respectively, since February this year. With the rise in NAV, the corpus of the two schemes has risen steadily over the past three months. The NAVs for Power and Premier were the lowest so far (on February 10) in calendar 1998 at Rs 6.46 and 6.9, respectively. The current NAVs for the two schemes are Rs 8.75 and Rs 8.29, respectively. The units of the two schemes currently trade at around Rs 7.50 on the Mumbai Stock Exchange and their prices have steadily risen in line with the NAV appreciation. While Power trades at a discount of 15.5 per cent to the NAV, the discount for Premier is lower at 9.5 per cent.While Premier has a heavy exposure to software, FMCG and pharma sectors, Power, being a core sector fund, only has exposure to software of the three sectors. The reduction innumber of stocks has also helped the AMC increase investment per scrip.
Of the 35 stocks in the case of Premier, ITC has replaced HLL as the top scrip. As of March 31, 1998, HLL had a portfolio weight of 2.46 per cent against 7.76 per cent in the previous year. Reliance, the number 4 scrip last year with a weightage of 5.88 per cent, is placed 34th now with a weight of 0.11 per cent. The fund has completely divested stocks like DCM Shriram, Morarjee Gokuldas Spinning, Uttam Steel, Federal Bank and Siemens. Surprise omissions have been those of Colgate, HDFC, Glaxo and Castrol.
The portfolio is more or less evenly spread across the spectrum of industries with three stocks from the IT industry, four pharmaceutical scrips, TVS and Bajaj from the auto sector and SBI and Corporation Bank from the banking sector.
The trimmed portfolio of core sector fund, Power, has now only 26 stocks. The fund has a substantial exposure to the IT sector with the market favourites of Pentafour Software, NIIT, Satyam Computer,Infosys and Tata Infotech. The five IT scrips have witnessed a sharp spurt in the last three months and have aided to the faster rise of Power NAV vis-a-vis Premier. Although christened ICICI Power, the portfolio has only one power stock, Andhra Valley Power Supply.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
