PPFAS Flexi Cap: Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund is perhaps the first mutual fund scheme giving Indian investors access to diversify their portfolio abroad. The latest October Factsheet shows that the fund house has further increased the level of cash holdings in the scheme.

As on July 31, the fund was sitting on 9.4% cash, which went up to 10.08% at the end of August. In September the cash holding increased further to 10.65%. As of October 31, the scheme holds cash and liquid assets of about 11.58%. The cash holdings are represented as FRD and TREPS Including Cash & Cash Equivalent and Net Current assets.

Assets Under Management (AUM) as of October 31, 2022, were Rs 27,712.05 Crores as against Rs 26,033.24 Crores on September 30, 2022. The exposure to foreign stocks in August 2022 was 20.37% which in September fell to 18.46% of the AUM. As of October 31, 2022, the total exposure to foreign stocks was 16.49%. The scheme’s CAGR since inception is 18.23% compared to returns of 14.8% for the Nifty 500 and 13.82% for the Nifty 50 index.

As of October 2022, 71.93% of the total corpus was invested in Indian equities while 16.49% was in foreign securities, and 10.58% was held as cash or liquid assets. Towards the exposure to Indian equities, 16.97% allocation is in the Finance sector, 11.96% is in Internet & Technology and 12.03% is in banks.

Within the Indian equity allocation, the top 5 companies with over 5% allocation include Housing Development Finance Corporation 7.99%, Bajaj Holdings & Investment 8.83%, ITC 7.64%, ICICI Bank 6.16% and Axis Bank 5.87%.

Also Read: US CPI data shows inflation rate cooling more than forecast to 7.7% in October

Alphabet Inc. (Google Class A) 5.18%, Microsoft Corporation, 5.03%, Meta Platforms Inc. (Formerly Facebook Inc.), 1.75%, Amazon, 3.96%, and Suzuki Motor Corp. (0.57%) are among the foreign investments held by the Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund as of October 31. Currency risk needs to be considered while investing internationally and for the Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund, the currency hedge covers about 75% of the exposure to foreign equities.

Also Read: U.S. midterm election outcome to boost Wall Street?

The Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund, originally the Parag Parikh Long Term Equity Fund, is an open-ended equity fund that makes investments in large-, mid-, and small-cap companies. The Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund stands apart from other plans in the same category due to its exposure to overseas equities. Through an actively managed portfolio that comprises investments in debt securities, foreign and Indian equities, as well as related products, the fund’s goal is to generate long-term capital growth.

It is important to note that as of February 2, 2022, all new investments in foreign securities were temporarily halted by Sebi. Additionally, starting on June 17, 2022, SEBI allowed AMCs to restart subscriptions to and investments in foreign funds and instruments up to the headroom available without exceeding the foreign investment cap as on February 1, 2022.