As on March 31, 35 stocks in the portfolio had a market capitalisation of Rs 500 crore. The fund has either drastically pruned or completely moved out of counters like Ranbaxy, IPCL, Gujarat Ambuja, VSNL, ICICI, Telco, IDBI, Arvind Mills, Gujarat Industries Power and Tata Chemicals. Ranbaxy was the top holding as on March 31, 1999 with the fund holding 1.10 lakh shares. On the other hand, as on June 30, 1999, it has augmented its holdings in Reliance (up from 2.6 lakh to 3.6 lakh), GE Shipping (13.1 lakh to 16.2 lakh), HPCL (1.43 lakh to 2.43 lakh) and Asian Paints(36,850 to 1.1 lakh). Interestingly, the fund has increased its holding in Satyam computer by 6.69 times to 37,500 shares.

Mobius is stated to have indicated that he was in favour of reducing the number of holdings in his funds' portfolios across-the-globe. According to market sources, the strategy will also be adopted by Templeton India Growth Fund. Neither chief executive officer of Templeton AMC, Vijay Advani nor head of marketing, Rajiv Vij were available for comment. The Templeton India Growth Fund has been actively selling stocks on the bourses, although it is not clear whether it is part of the new investment strategy. With TIGF's value investing strategy coming good after almost three years, the fund has also been booking profits. By its investment charter, the fund invests in value counters.

Market sources points out that the AMC is aiming at strategic holdings in companies. ``The new investment strategy will look at exiting those companies or pruning its holdings where the AMC is not comfortablewith the management while it plans to hold 5-7 per cent stake in companies where it stays invested,'' said a market intermediary. ``Concentrated holding has its obvious advantage when market price is rising while it can pull down the NAV sharply when markets are on a decline. It will also give the fund some leverage in the company,'' said an analyst.

TIGF has been one of the top performing equity funds for the current quarter with the net asset value rising from Rs 8.16 on March 31 to touch Rs 9.28 on June 30. This translates into a gain of 13.75 per cent in the last quarter. On launch in August 1996, the fund had garnered Rs 50 crore while assets have now risen to touch Rs 90 crore as on June 30, 1999. Mark Mobius is the fund manager of the Templeton India Growth Fund.