Some of the leading Contra Funds available for us to invest are:
1. ING Contra Fund
2. Kotak Contra Fund
3. L & T Contra Fund
4. SBI Magnum Sector Funds Umbrella - Contra
5. TATA Contra Fund
6. UTI Contra Fund and
7. Religare Contra Fund
Unfortunately No. If you compare the stocks portfolio of any of these Contra Funds and any of the top Equity Diversified funds you will see that they are similar. Atleast 60% of the stocks that Contra Funds have invested are present in the portfolio if a regular equity diversified fund. Even the Sectors in which these Contra Funds have invested is more or less the same as regular equity diversified funds.Sector NameContra Fund - Sector WeightageRegular Fund - Sector WeightageFinancial Services19%21%Energy & Power14%15%Consumer Goods10%9%The weightage in other sectors are comparable too.Actually speaking, if we pick up the top stocks like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, Infosys etc, both the Contra Funds and Equity Diversified Funds have invested in them. Almost all of these funds have exposure to such stocks even though, they claim to be following a contrarian investment approach.
Contra Funds are Mutual Funds that usually take a contrasting approach to investment when compared to regular mutual funds. They are usually extremely risky and may outperform the markets at times and may cause severe losses too.
Contrary to popular expectation, the Contra Funds haven't performed as well as investors would expect. The Category Average Returns of Contra funds has been: a. In the past 6 months = -16% b. In the past 1 year = -25% c. In the past 2 years = -2% d. In the past 5 years = 4% If we compare the returns that Equity Diversified Funds have given as a category average, they stand at: a. In the past 6 months = -14% b. In the past 1 year = -22% c. In the past 2 years = 2% d. In the past 5 years = 7% As you can see, Regular Equity Diversified Funds, as a whole have outperformed the Contra funds in the past 5 years.
The Securities and Exchanges Board of India SEBI and The Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) control the Mutual Funds in India
Well, If you ask me, the answer would be "NO". I believe as a good investor, the next thing that comes up in your mind is - "Why?" If you did think of it, then kudos to you. If you did not, then my friend its time to fire up those brain cells. No matter, who gives any investment advise, it is not a good idea to believe without asking "Why?"Reason 1: UnderperformanceAs you may have noticed in the paragraph on the performance of the Contra Funds, you can see that they have underperformed the Regular Equity Diversified Funds consistently over the past 5 years.Reason 2: Shrinking Fund CorpusWhen these Contra Funds were introduced almost a decade ago, they were selling like hot cakes. People invested in them heavily, but seeing their poor performance, most investors have sold their holdings in these funds. Some of these funds had AUM of over 1000 Crores but have come down significantly. The AUM as of November 2011 are:a. UTI Contra fund - 165 Crores (Was nearly 1200 Crores in 2006)b. ING Contra Fund - 8 Croresc. Religare Contra Fund - 66 Croresd. SBI Magnum Contra Fund - 2900 Crorese. Kotak Contra fund - 61 Crores (Was nearly 350 Crores in 2006)f. TATA Contra fund - 97 Crores (Was nearly 200 Crores in 2007)g. L & T Contra fund - 8 CroresNote: For the rest of the funds I could not find the historic AUM. But, based on the data for the rest of the funds, you can see that the AUM Corpus has shrunk significantly in these funds and suggests lesser investor confidenceReason 3: Not much Contrarian Investment ApproachBottom-line: The Stock Market is volatile and a contrarian investment approach may produce better returns. But, unfortunately the Contra funds available in the Indian MF Market right now are not so Contra and haven't performed well either. So, it is better to give them a pass and choose top performing Equity Diversified Mutual Funds that have outperformed other classes of MF's on a regular basis.
Mutual Funds are classified as * Equity Mutual Funds * Equity Diversified Funds * Equity Linked Savings Schemes * Large Cap funds * Mid cap funds * Small cap funds * Contra Funds * Sectoral Funds * Thematic Funds * etc... * Debt Mutual Funds * Bond Mutual Funds * Hedge Funds * Fund of Funds * etc...
A Contra Fund is another type of Equity Mutual fund that has a contrarian view to investment which is supposed to be the opposite of the view that regular MF's take.Theoretically speaking, a contra fund is one that invests in stocks that are out of favour with investors and are being sold/avoided by them but have the potential to grow in the long term. A regular MF manager will avoid such stocks while the fund manager of a contra fund will go in search of such stocks.Some of the leading Contra Funds available for us to invest are:1. ING Contra Fund2. Kotak Contra Fund3. L & T Contra Fund4. SBI Magnum Sector Funds Umbrella - Contra5. TATA Contra Fund6. UTI Contra Fund and7. Religare Contra FundEquity Midcap FundsThese are Mutual Funds that invest in companies that fall under the Small & Midcap category. They usually search for small to medium sized companies with good fundamentals and growth potential and invest in them.Example:a. DSP Blackrock Small & Midcap Fundb. HDFC Midcap Opportunities Fundc. IDFC Premier Equityd. ICICI Prudential Discovery Funde. etc
There are many different types of mutual funds. Some of them are: a. Equity Diversified b. ELSS funds c. Mid cap oriented funds d. Small cap oriented funds e. Contra funds f. Debt funds g. Gilt funds h. Bond funds i. Hedge funds j. etc
No.
The Working funds of a Bank is arrived at by subtracting the aggregate amount of contra items (Bills Lodged, Bills for collection, guarantees etc.) from the total liabilities of the balance sheet.
There are many types of MFs * Equity Diversified * Debt Funds * Fund of Funds * Hedge funds * Contra funds * Index funds * etc Mutual funds are instruments of investment for the investor who does not have the time or the expertise to trade in stocks. An expert financial investor would pool in money from such investors and trade stocks on their behalf and share the profit or loss with them.
Association of Mutual Funds in India