The Concept of Gilt Funds and The Top Performers in Long-Term and Short-Term Gilt Fund Categories
Gilt funds are essentially debt oriented mutual funds with money parked in government issued bonds and securities having different terms of maturity. Investors choose both long-term and short-term gilt funds for investment. And below you find some of the most popular products from both the categories.
Top Performing Long-term Gilt Funds -
Long term gilt funds make investments in government bonds that are long dated, with maturities of more than 5 years (this may go up to 30 years). If you are interested in investing in long-term gilt funds then here are the top ten performers in the market that you can choose from for investment. Check out -
Source: Swaraj Wealth Research
Although there are many gilt funds in the market, the top slot has been clinched by ICICI Prudential Constant Maturity Gilt Fund- Growth, having an AUM of INR 36.09 crores. This scheme, launched on 12-09-2014, offered a since-launch return of 10.39%.
The second scheme is ICICI Prudential Long Term Gilt Fund- Growth that came into existence on 19-08-1999. This scheme, having an AUM of INR 1468.14 crores, offered a return of 10.18% ever since its launch.
Third in the queue is DSP BlackRock Constant Maturity 10Y G-Sec Fund-Regular Plan-Growth, launched on 26-09-2014. The scheme that has around INR 140.82 crores under management gave a return of 9.94% since its launch.
The fourth best performer, DSP BlackRock Government Securities Fund- Regular Plan Growth has an AUM of INR 441.70 crores and offered a return of 9.81% since its advent on the 30th of September, 1999.
The fifth top performer is Franklin India Govt.Sec. Fund-Composite Plan-Growth, with an asset of INR 64.30 crores under management. The scheme offered a return percentage of 9.81 ever since it came into the market on the 22nd of June, 1999.
The sixth position has been cliched by JM G-Sec Fund- Growth Option, launched on 29-09-1999, with an AUM of INR 22 crores. It gave a return of 9.78% since its advent.
The seventh position holder in the list is Kotak Gilt - Investment Regular - Growth with an AUM of INR 761.13 crores. This scheme, launched on 29-12-1998, marked a since-launch return of 9.74%.
The 8th best performer in the category, Edelweiss Government Securities Fund - Regular Plan - Growth Option, launched on 13-02-2014, gave a return of 9.52% since its launch.
The second last performer we have is BNP Paribas Government Securities Fund - Growth option launched on 30-04-2013. This scheme, which has an AUM of INR 9.76 crores, gave a return of 9.40% since its launch.
The last in the category is Aditya Birla Sun Life Constant Maturity 10 Year Gilt Fund-Growth-Regular Plan, which came into existence on the 11th of October, 1999. This scheme has an asset of INR 31.06 crores under a management and gave a return of 9.33% since its advent.
Top Performing Short-term Gilt Funds Since Inception -
Short-term gilt funds make investments in government bonds with a short-term horizon in addition to long term bonds with residual maturities of a short-term horizon. Below you find a list of some of the best performing short-term gilt fund schemes in the market. Have a look -
Source: Swaraj Wealth Research
The top performer in this category is ICICI Prudential Short Term Gilt Fund-Growth, with an AUM of INR 133.23 crores. This scheme offered a return of 8.38% ever since its launch on the 19th of August, 1999.
The second-best performer is SBI Magnum Gilt Fund-Short Term - Regular Plan-Growth, launched on 23-12-2000, having an asset of INR 583 crores under management. The fund gave a since-launch return of 7.91%.
The third we have is ICICI Prudential Gilt Fund Treasury Plan PF Option - Growth that came into existence on 11-02-2004. This scheme having an AUM of INR 66.87 crores marked a since-launch return of 6.94%.
The fourth best performer, DSP BlackRock treasury Bill Fund-Regular Plan - Growth, offered a return of 6.84% since its launch in 1999.
HDFC Gilt Fund - Short Term-Growth is the fifth best performing scheme, which offered a since-launch return of 6.57%.
The sixth in the list is UTI-G-Sec Fund-STP Growth which gave around 6.45% as return since its advent in 2003.
DSP BlackRock Treasury Bill Fund- Unclaimed Redemption - Upto 3 years is the seventh top performing scheme and it gave a return percentage of 6.33 since its launch.
The last best performer is IDFC GSF - Short Term-Regular Plan-Growth, which came into the market in 2002, and offered a return of 6% since launch.
Although long-term gilt funds pose higher risks, most institutional investors prefer them over short-term gilt funds.