Pioneer ITI Prima Plus: Hold

Recommendation: Hold

Aarati Krishnan

INVESTORS in Pioneer ITI Prima Plus can stay with the fund for the present.

In terms of long-term performance, the fund has a less consistent track record than Pioneer ITI's Bluechip Fund. However, Prima Plus has been among the top performing funds in the past six months. Investors in the fund can, therefore, hold their units for the present.

The fund has an overweight position in technology stocks; therefore, it would be in a good position to capitalise on any bounce-back in technology stocks. This, however, goes with a higher-than-average risk profile for the fund. The following changes have taken place in the fund's portfolio between May 31 and June 30:

Stocks added: The fund added Nestle India, Sun Pharma, Digital Equipment and Mukta Arts.

Stocks sold: The fund completely liquidated holdings in Dabur India and Cadbury India. It also exited holdings in Hindustan Petroleum and BHEL.

Holdings enhanced: The fund enhanced its holdings in Hero Honda and TELCO within the automobile sector. The fund also increased exposure to Grasim, L&T, TISCO and BPCL. Dr. Reddy's Labs, Infosys, Hughes Software also saw additions during the month.

Holdings pared: The fund has pared exposures in the range of banking and finance stocks during the month. The fund booked profits in HDFC, HDFC Bank, CRISIL and ICICI, all of its holdings in the sector. The fund also pared exposures in Hindalco, HCL Technologies and Cummins. The fund pared exposures to Dr. Reddy's American Depository Shares, instead adding to its holdings in the domestic shares of the same company.

Sectoral exposures: Following the above changes, the fund's allocation to IT stocks was practically unchanged at 24 per cent. Healthcare (for which exposures have gone up from 14 per cent to 16.8 per cent) and FMCG (6.8 per cent to 7.7 per cent) have seen increased allocations. The fund has cut exposures to banking (15.7 per cent to 10.1 per cent) and metals (4.1 per cent to 3.8 per cent). The fund had a cash position of 8.53 per cent by end-June.

Fund facts: Pioneer ITI Prima Plus (formerly Kothari Pioneer Prima Plus) is an open-end fund launched in September 1994. The fund charges a maximum entry load of 2 per cent. The fund is managed by Mr R. Sukumar and manages Rs 104 crore in net assets.

(This column tracks recent changes in the top exposures of various mutual funds. The latest available portfolio is compared with that of the preceding month/quarter.)