India’s Top Portfolio Managers Lost Money In The Small- And Mid-Cap Rout

India's top portfolio managers were caught in the small- and mid-cap stock rout, with nine of the 10 best-known names losing money in the first half of the year. And only two managed to end with gains in the quarter ended June.

Managing assets worth Rs 29,400 crore (about $4.3 billion), they returned a negative 12 percent on an average in the first half and lost 4 percent in the three months to June.

The benchmark Nifty 50 gained 1.7 percent in the January-to-June period, but mid-cap index fell 13.5 percent and the small-cap gauge slid 22 percent. Apart from the headwinds from rising fuel prices and a ballooning trade deficit, selloff in the small- and mid-cap counters was aggravated by stringent margins requirements.

Typically, investors use portfolio management schemes to invest for one to three years. The firms BloombergQuint reached out to said the performance must be measured for individual schemes and not on the basis of total assets. But they don't publicly disclose scheme-wise performance, and there is a need for better transparency and disclosures, a portfolio manager told BloombergQuint on condition of anonymity.

Here's how the portfolio managers fared individually:

Nemish Shah/Jiten Doshi

Nimesh Shah-founded ENAM Asset Management manages over Rs 14,000 crore in assets, including Rs 8,680 crore for two corporate foreign institutional investors, according to the stock market regulator. It lost nearly 1 percent in the first quarter. Jiten Doshi is the fund manager for these assets.

Asit & Sameer Kotecha/Prateek Agrawal

Asit and Sameer Kotecha- founded ASK Investment Managers, manages Rs 10,789 crore. Prateek Agrawal is the business head and chief investment officer of the PMS. The fund gained 4.3 percent in April-June.

Kenneth Andrade

Kenneth Andrade's Old Bridge Capital, which manages Rs 1,825 crore, lost nearly 6 percent in the first quarter.

Porinju Veliyath

Veliyath's portfolio management firm Equity Intelligence India Pvt. Ltd. returned a negative 18.2 percent in April-June.

Veliyath, in a text message, said equity investing is long-term by nature and “underperformance or outperformance for a six-month period doesn't have any takeaway. Investors should look for long-term compounding of wealth”. He said his firm has given returns at an annualised growth rate of 45.2 percent in the previous five years.

Charandeep Singh & Varun Daga

The wealth management firm founded by the duo, GIRIK Wealth Advisors, lost nearly 9 percent in three months to June.

Rajesh Kothari

The Kothari-founded AlfAccurate Advisors gave a negative return of 1 percent in the first quarter.

Samit Vartak

The money managed by Vartak's firm, Sageone Investment Advisors, gave a negative 4.7 percent return in three months to June.

Nilesh Shah

Nilesh Shah's money management firm Envision Capital lost 7 percent in April-June. The three- and five-year CAGR return for clients stood at 5.1 percent and 15.7 percent, respectively, Envision Capital said in an emailed response.

Basant Maheshwari

Maheshwari's portfolio management firm Basant Maheshwari Wealth Advisers LLP posted 6 percent returns.

His fund focused on companies that dominate their sectors and are growing at rates higher than the industry, Maheshwari said in an emailed reply to BloombergQuint. “We didn't change any stock in January just because we thought that a bear market is coming. Our investments were guided on buying high quality names irrespective of market caps.”

(Corrected Maheshwari's April-June quarter return figure)