The fund has generated a growth 91 per cent in net assets as on January 31, 1999. The returns since inception on August 20, 1996 is even higher at 158.4 per cent.

The NAV of the fund has grown from $13.91 on June 30, 1998 to $20.31 on January 31, 1999, a growth of 46 per cent in seven months. The fund has outperformed the BSE Sensex and the BSE National Index over the past one year by a huge margin. During the year to January 31, 1999, the Sensex and Natex grew by 2.8 per cent and 4.3 per cent respectively.

The fund's portfolio has undergone major changes in the last 10 months with substantial profit-booking in scrips which have seen the maximum price appreciation. Notably, the fund has made a total exit from Castrol India.

Scrips in which more than90 per cent of its holdings have been disinvested during the last 10 months are Tata Infotech (99 per cent), Procter and Gamble (90 per cent), Essel Packaging (99 per cent), DSQ Software (99.7 per cent), Wipro (99 per cent), Smithkline Pharma (91 per cent), Birla 3M (99.1 per cent) and Cyanamid Agro (97 per cent).

Among the scrips recording maximum price appreciation in 1998 were Wipro (295 per cent), Tata Infotech (105 per cent), Essel Packaging (49 per cent), DSQ Software (716 per cent), Birla 3M (21 per cent) and Castrol (10 per cent).

During the last 10 months, the fund stepped up investments in NIIT (19 per cent), Hoechst Marion Roussel (15.5 per cent), AgrEvo India (119 per cent), Wyeth Lederle (8 per cent) and Novartis (54 per cent). Investments in Satyam Computers, Smithkline Beecham Consumer Healthcare and Burroughs Wellcome remained unchanged.

The fund has also booked substantial profits in the high-fliers like Hindustan Lever, Pond's India, Punjab Tractors, Crisil, Infosys Technologies,Pfizer India and Cadbury India. In the month of January, the fund has increased exposure by reinvesting its gains in some high growth scrips like Infosys Technologies, Britannia Industries, Nestle India and Punjab Tractors. The fund portfolio composition shows that the top five scrips - HLL, Infosys, Pfizer, NIIT and AgrEvo India - account for over 50 per cent of its total assets.

Sector-wise, pharmaceuticals accounts for 25 per cent of its total assets on January 31, 1999 against 18 per cent on June 30, 1998. The fund attaches a lot of importance to the growth potential of companies having `niche' products like Novartis, Wyeth Lederle and Pfizer. Software sector still accounts for nearly 26 per cent of assets against 34 per cent on June 30, 1998 which perhaps indicates that the fund manager has preferred profit-booking at higher levels as a prudential measure.

Fast moving consumer goods, which has also recorded phenomenal growth in profits and stock prices, is another sector in which the fund has beenconservative in its approach and kept exposure more or less unchanged by booking profits. As a result, the sector accounts for about 24 per cent of total assets on January 31,1999.