What is the difference between Flexi-cap funds and Multi-cap funds?

Various schemes offer diversification within equity markets, out of which, we are going to focus on Flexi-cap funds in this article.

Presently, people are getting aware of the fact that investing is an essential aspect of every individual life. As for investing aid, you create a fund to fulfil various life goals. While formulating one’s portfolio he/she should make sure that diversification is the key aspect to receive optimal benefits.

Multi-cap vs Flexi-cap Funds

Flexi-cap funds are equity-oriented mutual funds, which invest in stocks of the companies across the different market capitalisation such as large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap. Flexi-cap funds allow investors to diversify their portfolio across sectors as well as market capitalisation, which mitigates risk as compared to small-cap funds and mid-cap funds. Fund managers assess the growth potential of companies, irrespective of their sizes, and invest the corpus of investors in the same, unlike small-cap funds, mid-cap funds, and large-cap funds, which are focussed on the company’s market capitalisation. Fund managers can shift between different sectors and companies, as & when required. If in case, any particular sector or market cap category such as large-cap isn’t doing well while mid-cap is expected to do better going forward, then fund managers will adjust their portfolio accordingly to capture the future growth.

Flexi-cap funds are quite similar to multi-cap funds in the way they invest across the market capitalisation but differ in the proportion of funds invested in each of the market capitalisations. In the case of multi-cap funds, SEBI has mandated a minimum of 75% of the total assets towards equity and equity-related instruments and a minimum of 25% of allocation towards small-cap and mid-cap stocks each. On the other hand, Flexi-cap funds have to put 65% of the total assets towards equity and equity-related instruments and there is no pre-defined proportion to invest in small-cap, mid-cap, or large-cap stocks. Due to this benefit in Flexi-cap funds, many AMCs recategorised the multi-cap funds to Flexi-cap funds.

Who should consider investing these funds?

• Investors, who are ready to invest their money for at least 5 years, should consider investing in these funds.

• Flexi-cap funds come under the high-risk category; so, investors should assess their risk appetite, needs and goals and then decide to invest.

• Ideally, investors willing to diversify their portfolios across various sectors and market capitalisation to earn an optimal return should invest in these funds.

The following table depicts one-year return returns of the top five funds offering Flexi-cap funds based on AUMs: