Restructuring my MF portfolio in 2017 – why and how

If you are a regular reader of my blog you will know my 3 portfolio strategy for investment by now. I have portfolios in Debt, Stocks and MF. In the initial part of my working life I invested in mostly debt, the mid part was largely used to build up the stock portfolio and 2008 onward till now it has been largely MF. Of course, once I decided about giving up my regular corporate career in 2012, I boosted my debt portfolio significantly.

Over the years I have bought several MF schemes, initially with one time investments, thereafter with SIP and now back to investing at the right times. I have therefore collected a large number of MF schemes and in several of these the amounts invested are not very significant. The ones where I have done SIP obviously have some decent amounts, but even here there are several funds as my portfolio had changed over my 7 years of SIP.

In the past whenever the markets have gone up significantly, I have thought about cleaning up my MF portfolio. Somehow or the other it has never happened and I am stuck with a multitude of MF schemes, most of which I do not really want to keep. This weekend, I took a look at my MF portfolio after a long time and these were my observations.

• I am currently investing in 4 MF schemes which are as follows. My plan is to continue investing in these for the future, at least till I have active income to do so:-
  • ICICI Focused Blue chip fund
  • ICICI Value Discovery Fund
  • HDFC Mid cap opportunities Fund
  • DSP BR Micro cap Fund
• There are some other funds where I have significant investments but have dropped now. I will be keeping these for now but may want to sell them off during any annual review that I undertake. Future investments in these are unlikely:-
  • HDFC Top 200 Fund
  • IDFC Premier Equity Fund
  • Birla SunLife Frontline Equity Fund
  • DSP BR Equity Fund
  • Sundaram Select Mid cap Fund
  • Franklin India Blue Chip Fund
  • UTI Dividend yield Fund
• There are some Close ended funds such as the ICICI Value Series Funds. I had invested in these as they give regular dividends which is useful to me. I will either continue with them or shift to other similar funds. To give readers an idea, ICICI Value Series 2 has given an XIRR of 30 % plus in the 3 year investment period.
• Everything else, I want to get red of ASAP.

How do I plan to go about it? I have a feeling that next few weeks may be the best chance if Nifty goes to 8750 etc. Once the quarterly results and budget are through and the state elections happen, our markets are very likely to down to 8000 or even below that on the Nifty. Once I sell all my disposable MF, I will just be in cash and wait for the right opportunity.

What will I be buying with the cash I get? Well, one option is to invest in some of the stocks I had outlined in the last post. I am sure that if I buy these at Nifty levels of 8000 I will definitely see significant returns over the next 3 years etc. Another option will be to space out the stocks and invest in my 4 MF’s .

Unless the NIfty shows a rising trend due to a strong budget, I am finally ready to pull the trigger on this. Even if it keeps rising, I will still sell when it reaches 9000, as I do not believe that is a value at which the Nifty can sustain itself.