Long chase of growth through ups & downs

The fund got noticed in the very first year of its existence. Though it trounced the competition in 2007, its performance was not consistent throughout the year. And while investors celebrated with a 95 per cent return in 2007, in the March 2008 quarter, they witnessed 33.36 per cent drop in their returns.
The fall was the logical outcome of the entire sector plummeting and the market going downhill, but JM Financial fell more than its peers.
This fund has always been very bullish on ICICI Bank. It is the only stock in the portfolio that has been there continually since launch. Even now, it is the top-most holding at 11.57 per cent.
The fund manager chases growth, so momentum stocks like Reliance Capital, Indian Infoline and Srei Infrastructure are more favoured. It has more or less avoided public sector banking stocks like Maharashtra Bank, Jammu & Kashmir Bank and South Indian Bank.
Though the fund manager continuously held on to stocks like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Yes Bank, IDFC, PFC and Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services for fairly long periods of time, it does not indicate that he adheres to the buy-and-hold strategy.
He exited stocks like Axis Bank, Bank of India, IDBI, Karnataka Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Reliance Capital only to get into them at a later date. Of course, the small size of the fund has given the fund manager the leeway to be a nimble player.
This investing style of chasing growth and selling once a price objective has been achieved, only to re-enter later, is typical of fund manager Sandeep Neema. But what's also typical is that when his fund outperforms, it is streets ahead of the competition, but when it does not, it falls much lower than its peers. If you are considering this fund, get mentally prepared to ride the ups and downs.