Birla Sun Life Holds Onto Its Throne

Every month the Value Research Rating Radar witnessing changes in the star rankings of quite a few mutual funds. While some do well and move up the ladder, others register unimpressive performances and are demoted. But this time, before we discuss the fund ratings, there's another important change that we need to tell you about first.

This change is in the qualifying criteria for the entry of funds into the Value Research Star Ratings family. In July, a new criterion was added to the previously applicable criteria. From now on, funds also need to have average assets of above Rs. 5 crore in the last six months to get rated. With this move, 62 funds that didn't meet this criterion have been dropped from the rating family.

At the same time, the month of July also saw 11 new additions to the Star Ratings family. The new members were Baroda Pioneer Growth, Lotus India Liquid Plus Retail, Baroda Pioneer Diversified, ING OptiMix Active Debt Multi Manager FoF, Baroda Pioneer ELSS 96, Kotak Contra, Baroda Pioneer Liquid, UTI Opportunities, JM Emerging Leaders, Principal Junior Cap and Tata Midcap. Two of these funds - the first two in the above list - have straightaway made it to the list of 4-star rated funds. Seven of these 11 funds are from the equity diversified category.

The past month also saw as many as five funds moving up to the very elite 5-star category. These included: Templeton IGSF Long-term, Birla Sun Life Gilt Plus Regular, DWS Insta Cash Plus, ICICI Prudential Index and Reliance Regular Savings Equity. The point to note here is that of these, Reliance Regular Savings Equity was the only equity diversified fund. After being rated for the first time as a 4-star rated fund in the month of June, the fund had now been promoted to the dignified category of 5-star funds.

Apart from these, 11 funds attained the 4-star status this time. These are: ICICI Prudential Gilt Investment PF, Birla Sun Life Cash Manager, DBS Chola Opportunities, HSBC Floating Rate ST Inst, ING Nifty Plus, ING Short Term Income, JM Basic, Principal GSF Inv, Templeton India GSF Composite, Templeton India GSF PF and UTI Dividend Yield. All of these were 3-star rated funds in June except ICICI Prudential Gilt Investment PF, which was a 2-star rated fund in the previous month.

And now on to the losers, July saw quite a few funds losing their 5-star status. Funds that were dragged down from the 5-star to 4-star status this time included: ABN AMRO Flexi Debt Reg, DSPML Equity, ICICI Prudential Gilt Treasury, IDFC GSF PF Inst, IDFC GSF PF Regular, Principal MIP Plus and Tata Liquid Super HI. Among these, DSPML Equity was the only equity fund.

Amongst the fund houses, it's Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund which again got the top honours for owning the highest number of 5-star rated funds just like the previous month. The fund house which had seven 5-star funds in June upped its kitty to eight such funds. SBI, ICICI Prudential and Franklin Templeton had four 5-star funds each. With 11 funds, Tata Mutual fund had the highest number of 4-star funds in July.

And when the 5-star and 4-star funds are taken together, its Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund again which tops the chart with a total of 14 funds. ICICI Prudential Mutual fund closely followed it with a total of 13 funds.

Overall, the month saw 31 upgrades and 51 downgrades while 357 maintained a status quo. The most significant upgrade was in Templeton IGSF Long-term and ICICI Prudential Gilt Investment PF. Both these funds moved two steps up the ladder. Templeton IGSF Long-term which was earlier a 3-star rated fund attained 5-star status while ICICI Prudential Gilt Investment PF had moved up from its 2-star rating to become a 4-star rated fund.

On the contrary, the most significant downgrade was seen in LICMF GSF and LICMF GSF PF. Both these funds had slipped down to a 2-star rating from their prior 4-star status.

How they stack up Fund House    *    **    ***    ****    ***** ABN AMRO Mutual Fund   3   -   3   1   - Baroda Pioneer Mutual Fund   -   2   1   1   - Benchmark Mutual Fund   2   -   1   1   - Birla Sunlife Mutual Fund   4   6   13   6   8 Canara Robeco Mutual Fund   1   -   5   4   1 DBS Chola Mutual Fund   3   5   1   2   1 Deutsche Mutual Fund   2   -   1   2   3 DSP Merrill Lynch Mutual Fund   2   6   2   3   3 Escorts Mutual Fund   1   -   1   -   - Fidelity Mutual Fund   1   -   2   3   - Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund   -   7   17   7   4 HDFC Mutual Fund   2   9   11   7   2 HSBC Mutual Fund   -   1   4   7   2 ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund   -   6   15   9   4 IDFC Mutual Fund   2   4   4   3   - ING Mutual Fund   -   2   6   5   - JM Financial Mutual Fund   4   7   1   1   - Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund   -   6   11   2   2 LIC Mutual Fund   1   8   2   2   2 Lotus India Mutual Fund   -   1   2   1   - Principal Mutual Fund   2   5   6   6   1 Quantum Mutual Fund   -   -   1   -   - Reliance Mutual Fund   2   -   8   4   3 Sahara Mutual Fund   -   -   2   3   - SBI Mutual Fund   2   4   10   3   4 Sundaram BNP Paribas Mutual Fund   -   6   3   3   2 Tata Mutual Fund   2   5   12   11   1 Taurus Mutual Fund   2   1   1   -   - UTI Mutual Fund   7   10   12   3   3 As on July 31, 2008