I invested in Sundaram Equity Plus in 2011 when it was launched. The value of my investment has hardly made any gains. What should I do?
Tridib Saha, Guwahati
This is a hybrid equity fund which invests in a mix of equities and gold. Investments in equity are to the extent of at least 65 per cent, the remaining being in gold-ETF. There is also scope for investing in global markets, which cannot exceed 35 per cent of assets. A return of about 6.2 per cent since launch, when you invested is not exciting, but that is due to the narrow investment objective of this fund. Considering the fund has a significant investment in gold ETF, a lot of performance rides on how gold as an asset fares. In the recent past, the performance of gold has not been favourable, which has impacted the performance of this fund as well. If you had invested in the NFO (new fund offer) when this fund was launched driven by the Rs 10 per unit of investment—it was a bad idea. When investing in mutual funds, you must consider your investment objective before committing money. Investing without a goal and then feeling let down by the investment returns is not the right approach. Ideally, when investing in equities, consider investing in a well diversified equity fund over narrow investment themes.
