Morningstar India announced winners of the Morningstar Fund Awards 2013 at a ceremony held in Mumbai on March 20.
Since the awards are annual in nature, we look to identify funds and fund managers that created the most value for investors on a risk-adjusted returns basis over the past year. However, so as to not to overtly emphasise short-term performance, the awards take into account three- and five-year performances.
2012 was a strong year for both the stock and the bond market. But these winners, selected using a quantitative methodology, along with a qualitative overlay, outperformed their peers on a risk-adjusted returns basis.
In all, seven category awards were given out to individual fund schemes while three prizes were handed out as the best fund house winners.
These were: winners in the large-cap and the small/mid-cap categories for equity schemes, moderate and conservative allocation in the allocation category, and ultra-short, short-term and intermediate bond for debt funds. At the fund house level, we had a Best Equity Fund House, Best Debt Fund House and Best Multi-Asset Fund House.
The winners
For equity funds, UTI Equity was selected as the Best Large-Cap Fund for the first time in the award’s five-year history. Birla Sun Life MNC, an earlier winner at the 2011 awards show, got the Best Small/Mid-Cap Fund prize.
Among allocation funds, Reliance Monthly Income Plan, the category award winner at the inaugural 2009 awards function, did a repeat and bagged the Best Conservative Allocation Fund while HDFC Balanced, managed by Chirag Setalvad, bagged the Best Moderate Allocation Fund for the second time after 2011.
While for debt funds, BNP Paribas Money Plus bagged the Best Ultra-Short Bond Fund prize, Birla Sun Life Dynamic Bond was selected as the Best Short-Term Bond Fund, while Templeton India Income Builder Account took home the Best Intermediate Bond Fund award.
For the mega prizes--the best fund house awards: HDFC Asset Management Company took away the Best Equity Fund House award for the fourth year in a row since 2010 while Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company was awarded the Best Debt Fund House for the first time in the award’s history, an award previously dominated by ICICI Prudential AMC for four years. Finally, HDFC Asset Management Company again won the Best Multi-Asset Fund House award for the third straight year.
To read the awards methodology, please click here.
Here are the winners over the years 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012.