``Zurich Financial had invested a sum of Rs 5.5 crore in the Prudence Fund around one-and-half years back, and has agreed to keep the money for the next year, looking at the good performance of the scheme,'' said a source at Twentieth Century Mutual Fund.

Zurich India Prudence Fund, the rechristened fund of Twentieth Century Mutual Fund, has given a return of 13.55 per cent for the year ended December 31, 1998 against a 16 per cent fall in the Sensex. Since inception, the scheme has generated a total return of 37 per cent, including two dividends of 19 per cent and 12 per cent.

The fund was due for redemption on January 31, 1999 but is now being converted to an open-ended scheme. The Prudence fund currently has60,000 investors in the scheme.

``The return generated is around 35 per cent more than the composite index from inception to December 31, 1998. For example, Rs 10 invested in the composite index in February, 1994, would have become Rs 11.30 as on December 31, 1998 while an investment in Prudence fund would have grown to Rs 13.71 during the same period,'' said a fund manager at the Twentieth Century mutual fund. ``In order to have a comparison of the scheme's performance with the market returns, the fund has created its own index which comprises of 50 per cent debt securities at 14 per cent yield and the balance 50 per cent of CNX S&P 500 Index,'' he said. The investors will be able to enter or exit the scheme after roll-over at the prevailing NAV.

The scheme's portfolio has witnessed changes since December. A comparison of the portfolio shows that in equities, exposure to software has increased to 19.22 per cent from 13 per cent in the previous year while it is up from 5.72 per cent in fast movingconsumer goods(FMCG) to to 14.96 per cent. The exposure to pharmaceuticals has been drastically reduced from 19.93 per cent to 8.42 per cent, in Engineering to 6.85 per cent from 14.73 per cent and in oil & gas to 7.82 per cent from 17.20 per cent.

The debt portfolio has dramatically increased exposure in the financial services area from 7.60 per cent to 42.02 per cent among other changes.

Currently, a large portion of the portfolio is in cash as the fund prepares itself for redemptions and roll-overs. The cash component of the portfolio has increased to 19 per cent (December 31, 1998) compared to 8 per cent during the same period last year.