Equity funds lost Rs 8,000 cr in May mayhem

Pharma leads losers' pack among sector funds.

With the stock markets seeing their worst-ever slump in May, equity oriented funds saw a value erosion of over Rs 8,000 crore during the month.

All major equity oriented schemes lost between 10 and 22 per cent, with Deutsche Alpha equity scheme showing a decline of 22.25 per cent.

The 30-scrip BSE Sensex declined by 14.47 per cent or 1,767 points in a month to close at 10451.33 on June 2, 2006. S&P CNX Nifty declined 14.26 per cent during the month, BSE mid-cap lost 17.43 per cent and BSE small-cap 19.91 per cent.

Sectoral funds such as pharma, auto, diversified and FMCG underperformed the Sensex, with the net asset value of pharma funds declining 16.95 per cent, auto 16.41 per cent, diversified 16.28 per cent and FMCG by 15.7 per cent.

The banking funds did relatively better, with an average fall of 9.35 per cent. The NAV of the speciality schemes declined 11.17 per cent and that of hybrid equity oriented schemes declined 11.43 per cent, technology funds declined by 11.8 per cent and index funds by 13.42 per cent.

As many as 80 odd equity oriented schemes under-performed benchmark indices, while 30 others registered a decline between 10 and 14.4 per cent.

The NAV of seven equity schemes declined over 20 per cent each, while six others showed an NAV decline of over 19 per cent. The NAV of 17 schemes declined by over 18 per cent each, while 11 others showed an NAV decline of over 17 per cent.

The downturn in equity markets also shaved off the net asset value of all unit link insurance plans by over 10 per cent last month. The fall in NAV has been higher at over 15 per cent in case of equity oriented insurance plans and around 10 per cent for hybrid insurance plans.

Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance has been hit the hardest, with six of its unit linked insurance plans ranked in the top 10 losers' list.