Axis Mutual Fund looks at auto industry

Axis Mutual Fund is looking at the auto industry, in order to help keep it in the top ranks of the nation’s asset managers. The investor is slowly increasing exposure to select companies as it sees “some signs” of demand revival with a better-than-expected monsoon and lower corporate tax rates supporting sentiment.

“We are adding auto to our portfolio,” Jinesh Gopani, head of equity for Axis Asset Management Co., overseeing about Rs 57,000 crore ($8 billion) of assets, said during the interview. “In another two years, the sector could come back,” he added.

The S&P BSE Auto Index has dropped by 14% so far this year. That is the second-worst performance among 19 sector sub-indexes compiled by BSE Ltd. Passenger car sales plunged 33% in September from a year earlier, down for an 11th consecutive month, industry data showed earlier this month.

Axis prides itself on investing for the longer term, and its biggest fund, Axis Long Term Equity Fund, offered a return of 20% over the past year, beating 92 percentile of its peers. Over five years, the returns are 14%, higher than 96 percentile.

With assets of Rs 20,400 crore under management, the fund added shares in the nation’s largest car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., Eicher Motors Ltd. and auto component maker Motherson Sumi Systems Ltd., data compiled by Bloomberg show.
“The idea is to pick leaders in large, mid and small caps from each sector and just be with them over their business cycle,” Gopani said. “We don’t want to be a rock star in one year and a pop star in another,” he added.