SIF Performance Data Shows Wide Gap Across Long-Short Strategies

Key Takeaways

• All seven equity ex-top-100 long-short SIFs covered in one September-end dataset recorded losses during the final week of September. 
• Quant's qSIF ex-top-100 strategy remained ahead on available longer-term numbers, gaining 29.23% over six months in the cited dataset. 
• Separate data on equity long-short SIFs also showed materially different outcomes from conventional equity mutual fund categories. 

Performance across India's developing Specialised Investment Fund market is beginning to show a wide gap between individual strategies, even within products operating under similar long-short mandates. 

Data compiled by SIF360 and reported by Moneycontrol showed that all seven strategies in the equity ex-top-100 long-short category posted losses during the final week of September. 

Over longer periods, however, the differences were sizeable. 

Quant Mutual Fund's qSIF, the oldest strategy in the category, was reported to have gained 29.23% over six months and 12.87% since inception as of the September 30 dataset, with its NAV at ₹11.22. 

Other products had shorter operating histories, which makes like-for-like longer-term comparisons difficult. 

The category is designed to invest predominantly outside the top 100 companies by market capitalisation while permitting short exposure through equity derivatives. A minimum 65% allocation is required outside the top 100, while unhedged short exposure can extend to 25%. 

A separate analysis published by Mint illustrates how SIF outcomes can also differ from conventional mutual fund categories. The study reported that equity long-short SIFs were down about 1.8% on a year-to-date basis, compared with a steeper decline in the large-cap mutual fund comparison used in that analysis. 

The two datasets cover different SIF strategy groups and should therefore not be treated as direct comparisons. Together, however, they underline a defining feature of the SIF segment: the label covers several portfolio approaches with materially different asset exposures, derivative use and risk profiles. 

Broader September data has shown similar dispersion. In the hybrid long-short segment, for example, Quant's qSIF Hybrid gained 16.91% during September, while several peers finished the month in negative territory. 

SIFs are still relatively new in India, so most schemes have limited performance histories. Current return tables consequently reflect short and differing periods rather than full market cycles.