Ace money manager Siddhartha Bhaiya-led portfolio management services advisory Aequitas Investment Consultancy on December 18 announced temporarily suspending the inflow of funds into their domestic PMS and AIF. Data collated by PMS Bazaar showed that Aequitas Investment Consultancy’s India Opportunities Product PMS scheme has topped the chart in terms of one-year performance. The scheme has delivered an 86.88 per cent return to investors in the last one year till November 30. The announcement came at a time when the benchmark BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty are hovering at their record high levels. Aequitas CAT-3 Long Only AIF scheme Aequitas Equity Scheme-1 also gained the most 84.65 per cent in the past one year.
Aequitas Investment Consultancy in a note said that the decision has been made due to our minimum margin of safety requirements before investing in stocks. “We continue to remain bullish on the long-term prospects of both our country and our portfolio holdings. However, the current frenetic and euphoric rally in the small and midcap index over the last 6 months has reduced the number of stocks that fit within our valuation framework,” it said adding they see a bubble building in the IPO and SME markets. The spate of QIPs and secondary offerings is also sucking out the liquidity from the system.
Aequitas further said that despite these challenges, the valuation and growth prospects for our portfolio companies look reasonable and they will continue to hold them.
On a year-to-date basis, the BSE Sensex has gained over 17 per cent so far to 71,315.09 on December 18, 2023 against 60,840.74 on December 30 last year. The NSE Nifty index also advanced 18 per cent during the same period. The BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap indices have also rallied over 40 per cent each YTD.
“Our offshore fund which is currently in a very nascent stage will continue to accept funds. For those of you who are contemplating /are in the process of opening accounts with us, we would encourage that the accounts be opened so that all administrative activities are completed so that we are primed to infuse capital when the fund manager is comfortable,” Aequitas said.