As on March 31, 1999, the fund had 18.94 lakh shares of Reliance Industries with a market value of Rs 25.66 crore on that day. With a unit capital of Rs 53.31 crore as on September 30, 1998, the corpus of Reliance Vision works out to Rs 69.66 crore (on March 31, 1999) on a NAV of Rs 13.07. The value of investments in Reliance, as a percentage of the corpus, works out to 36.83 per cent.

``Going by its investment philosophy of capital appreciation, Reliance Vision should hold large chunk of shares in high growth stocks like pharma, FMCG and IT. However, for unknown reasons, the fund has sucha high exposure to Reliance which has lost its charm in the last couple of years,'' said an analyst. ``It would make sense if the fund had a 37 per cent exposure to IT or pharma or FMCG sectors as a number of its peers have done,'' added an industry observer.

Launched in 1995, the fund has a current NAV of Rs 11.07, which translates into a gain of only 10.7 per cent since inception. The NAV touched a high of Rs 14.08 on October 13, 1997 with a low of Rs 8.98 on December 10, 1996. On the other hand, the aggressive peers of Reliance Vision have been delivering handsome returns even in a turbulent market.

If one were to simultaneously track the NAV of Reliance Vision and the market price of Reliance Industries, one finds the emergence of a clear trend. Between December 31, 1998 and March 8, 1999, the market price of Reliance rose from Rs 119 to Rs 152 while the NAV of the fund climbed from Rs 10.51 to Rs 13.02 during the same period. After March 8, the Reliance counter dropped to touch Rs 120 on March 26even in a rising market while the NAV of the fund also dropped below the Rs 13-level to hover around Rs 12.7. It once again rose to touch Rs 13.07 on March 31 when Reliance recovered to Rs 131 in just two trading sessions.

As on March 31, 1999, the market value of the total holdings in Reliance companies by Reliance MF schemes stood at Rs 26 crore. This translates into 19.4 per cent of the aggregate net asset value of Reliance Capital Mutual Fund. The book value/cost of investment is Rs 27 crore which is 20.16 per cent of the aggregate NAV of Reliance Capital Mutual Fund.

``If one were to see the portfolios of other mutual funds promoted by big industrial houses, Birla Advantage does not have even a single investment in Birla companies while Tata Mutual Fund holds investments only in desirable companies of the Tata empire like Tata Tea and Tata Infotech,'' said an analyst.