Methodology

CRISIL Mutual Fund Ranking is the relative ranking of mutual fund schemes within a peer group. The basic criteria for inclusion in the ranking universe are three-year NAV history (one-year for liquid, ultra short-term debt, short term income, credit opportunities and index funds, and five years for consistent performers), assets under management in excess of cut-off limits and complete portfolio disclosure. Only open ended schemes are considered. Ranking is based on the following parameters:

Superior Return Score (SRS)

The superior return score (SRS) is the relative measure of the schemes' returns and risks (volatility) compared to their peer group. It is computed long term income, balanced, monthly income plan (aggressive) and long term gilt categories. The three-year period of evaluation is divided into four overlapping periods - the latest 36, 27, 18 and 9 months. Each period has a progressive weight starting from the longest period: 32.5%, 27.5% , 22.5% and 17.5%, respectively. In case of consistent performers (for balanced and debt categories), the SRS is calculated for a period of five years, with each one-year period being weighted progressively with the most recent period having the highest weightage.

Mean Return and Volatility

Mean return and volatility are considered as separate parameters in case of equity funds (large cap, small & mid-cap, equity diversified, equity linked savings schemes or ELSS and them atic infrastructure), consistent performers - equity as well as short term debt categories (liquid, ultra short-term debt and short term income and credit opportunities funds).SRS is used for the rest of the categories. Mean return is the average of daily returns based on the scheme's NAV for the period under analysis and volatility is the standard deviation of these returns. While the period for analysis is three years for equity funds, it is one year for liquid, credit opportunities, ultra short - term debt and short term income funds. The period of analysis is broken into four periods (latest 36, 27, 18 and 9 months for equity categories and latest 12, 9, 6 and 3 months for short term categories). Each period is assigned a progressive weight starting from the longest period as follows: 32.5%, 27.5%, 22.5% and 17.5% respectively. In case of consistent performers - equity, mean return and volatility are calculated for five years, with each one-year period being weighted progressively with the most recent period having the highest weight.

Downside Risk Probability (DRP)

DRP is considered for liquid and ultra-short term debt categories. DRP measures the probability of the investment earning lower returns compared with short tenor risk-free securities. It is measured by assessing the number of times a scheme's return falls below the risk-free return during the period of analysis. The risk-free return is taken as 91-day T-Bill auction yield revised on a weekly basis. Progressive weights are applied for each quarterly period.

Portfolio Concentration Analysis

Concentration measures the risk arising out of improper diversification. For equity securities, diversity score is used as the parameter to measure industry and company concentration. In case of debt schemes, the industry concentration is analysed for any exposure to sensitive sectors which are arrived at based on CRISIL's assessment of the prospects for various sectors. The company concentration is analysed at an individual issuer specific limit of 10%.

Liquidity Analysis

It measures the ease with which a portfolio can be liquidated. The lower the score, the better it is. In case of equities, it measures the number of days to liquidate the portfolio. Liquidity is calculated by taking the average portfolio liquidity score of the past three months.

Equity liquidity is computed as follows:

Liquidity score of each stock = No. of shares held / Daily average trading volume of past six months Portfolio liquidity score = Weighted average liquidity score of the above

Gilt liquidity is measured by analysing the number of days it will take to liquidate the portfolio based on turnover (volume) and number of securities in the portfolio, the number of days security has got traded and the number of trades in any security for a three - month period for that security. Corporate debt liquidity is computed by classifying each security into three categories - liquid, semi liquid and illiquid - and then evaluating a scheme's exposure to each category.

Asset Quality

Asset quality measures the probability of default by the issuer of a debt security to honour the debt obligation in time.

Modified Duration/Average Maturity

Modified duration/Average maturity is considered across all debt categories except liquid to capture the interest rate risk of the portfolio. The lower the value, the better it is.

Asset Size

It is considered for credit opportunities funds, ultra short-term debt and liquid categories to take into account the effect of large fund flows on the schemes' performance and ability of the schemes to manage such flows optimally. The higher the asset size, the better it is..

Tracking Error

This is used only for index schemes. The tracking error is an estimation of the variability in a scheme's performance vis-a-vis the index that it tracks. The lower the tracking error, the better it is.

Historic CRISIL Mutual Fund Ranking Performance

Historic CRISIL Mutual Fund Ranking performance is considered only for the consistent category. Quarterly mutual fund rankings during the five year period of analysis are broken into five blocks of one year each. Each block is differentially weighted with the most recent period having the highest weightage.

CRISIL Mutual Fund Ranking Category Definitions