Axis Focused 25 Fund: A seasoned performer

If you invested Rs 10 lakhs in Axis Focused 25 Fund at the time of its NFO around 11 years back (2012) your investment would have multiplied 4 times (source: Advisorkhoj, as on 26^th June 2023). Axis Focused 25 Fund is one of the most popular schemes in its category with Rs 15,680 crores of assets under management (AUM) as on 31^st May 2023. The expense ratio of the scheme is 1.7%. The scheme is helmed by industry veteran Jinesh Gopani and Vinayak Jayanath.

What are Focused Equity Funds?

As per SEBI guidelines, focused equity funds is a category of mutual fund schemes where each scheme is focused on a few stocks – the maximum number of stocks a focused equity fund can invest in is 30.

How can focused investing create alphas?

A portfolio with higher allocations to top-performing stocks in different industry sectors has the potential to outperform a portfolio with a larger number of stocks but lower allocations to top performers. A portfolio with higher allocations to top-performing stocks in different industry sectors has the potential to outperform even an equal-weight portfolio. Focused equity funds invest in a relatively concentrated portfolio of high-conviction stocks.

Growth of Rs 10,000 invested in Axis Focused 25 Fund since inception

The chart below shows the growth of Rs 1 lakh lump sum investment in the scheme’s growth option since inception versus Nifty 50 TRI. The scheme’s CAGR since inception was 13.75% outperforming Nifty 50 TRI (as of 27^th June 2026).

Source: Advisorkhoj Research

Performance Consistency

We have discussed a number of times in our blog that rolling returns is one of the best measures of performance consistency over long investment tenures. The chart below shows the 5-year rolling returns of Axis Focused 25 Fund versus its benchmark index, Nifty 500 TRI, since the scheme’s inception. You can see that the scheme has consistently outperformed the benchmark across different market conditions, most of the time over 5-year investment tenures in the last 10 years or so. The average 3-year rolling return of the scheme over the past 5 years was 14.45%. You can also see that Axis Focused Equity Fund gave more than 12% returns, nearly 65% of the times over 5-year investment tenures.

Source: Advisorkhoj Rolling Returns

Let us now see how the scheme performed versus the focused equity funds category since the scheme’s inception for 5 year investment tenures. You can see that Axis Focused Equity Fund was consistently able to beat the category average over 5 year investment tenures across different market conditions. The scheme has underperformed in the recent past, but given the strong long term performance track record of this scheme and the track record of its fund manager, we think that Axis Focused Equity Fund can bounce back into the top quartiles again.

Source: Advisorkhoj Rolling Returns

Wealth creation by Axis Focused 25 Fund

The chart below shows the wealth accumulated through Rs 10,000 monthly SIP in Axis Focused 25 Fund, Growth Option since the inception of the scheme. You can see that with a cumulative investment of Rs 13.2 lakhs you could have accumulated wealth of more than Rs 26 lakhs over the last 10 years or so. The annualized SIP returns (XIRR) over the last 5 years was 12.1%.

Source: Advisorkhoj Research

Investment Strategy

• Focuses on up to 25 best ideas with high conviction while remaining diversified.


• Nurtures companies over their business cycle without being affected by short term market volatility.


• Pure bottom-up, best-ideas approach with high active allocation relative to the benchmark


• Active high conviction investing strategy


• Risk management embedded in the investment process


• Concentrated focus on sustainable businesses

Stock Selection

• Target for companies that deliver ROE / ROCE’s over the medium to long term on sustained basis


• Avoid companies with bad corporate governance and weak financial metrics


• Aims for lower standard deviation and beta with tight tracking error as compared to the benchmark


• Compact portfolio with max 25 Companies across market capitalization segments

Current portfolio construction

The fund manager looks at 3 broad buckets while constructing the portfolio:-

• Core Portfolio (50 – 60%): Steady compounders generating reasonable returns with low volatility


• Alpha Portfolio (20 – 25%): Companies having cyclical tailwind


• Emerging Themes (20 – 25%): Generating break-out growth going forward

Who should invest in Axis Focused 25 Fund?

• Investors looking for capital appreciation and wealth creation.


• Investors should have at least 5 year investment horizon in this scheme.


• Investors with high to very high risk appetites.


• You can invest in this scheme either in lump sum or through

Investors should consult with their financial advisors if Axis Focused 25 Fund is suitable for their investment needs.