HEAD-TO-HEAD: Fidelity versus FSSA

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Source: FE Fundinfo. Three-year cumulative returns in US dollars.

Performance

The Fidelity fund has generated a three-year cumulative return of 36% with annualised volatility of 22.05%, according to FE Fundinfo.

It has outperformed the average 23.98% return of India equity products available to Hong Kong retail investors, but has lagged the MSCI India index which has posted a 41.23% return during the same period, FE Fundinfo data shows.

Its best recent relative performance for a calendar year was 2020, and it was resilient during the 2018 market downturn.

“The Fidelity fund has performed well over three years, but it tends to quite closely track its index,” said Lo.

The FSSA product’s three-year performance is less impressive. It has achieved only a 21.69% cumulative return (with lower annualised volatility of 18.43%), according to FE Fundinfo, which Lo attributes largely to its ack of exposure to Reliance Industries – a company that manager Vinay Agarwal dislikes.

The strategy has performed well year-to-date. It is up 14.69%, compared with Fidelity (13.14%), and the category average (13.41%), although its slightly lagged the MSCI India index (15.08%), FE Fundinfo data shows.

“Typically, the FSSA fund is resilient during down-markets as it is bolstered by its concentration on high quality companies,” said Lo.

“Indeed, the team’s bottom-up, conviction-driven, absolute-return investment approach has been proven across multiple market cycles,” he said.

Discrete calendar year performance

Source: FE Fundinfo. Annual returns in US dollars. *31 Dec 2020 – 11 June 2021

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