In other words, about six multi asset allocation funds have completed 10 years in the market, and Quant Mutual Fund’s scheme has ranked first across all timeframes.
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Based on the trailing returns, Quant Multi Asset Allocation Fund has offered 21.65% CAGR in the last three years, 22.56% CAGR in the last five years, 22.59% CAGR in the last seven years, and 17.39% CAGR in the last 10 years (Source : ACE MF)
The data for the benchmark was not available for comparison but the fund has managed to outperform its category average in all the said four horizons as the category average was 16.12%, 14.44%, 14.54%, and 12.74% in the last three, five, seven, and 10 years. Since its inception, the fund has offered a CAGR of 11.50%.
How an expert analyse the performance
Sagar Shinde, VP Research at Fisdom shared with ETMutualFunds that the fund’s strong outperformance across time periods has largely been a result of its dynamic and tactical asset allocation strategy rather than just favourable market conditions.
He further said that a key driver was its high conviction overweight position in financials (peaking 59%), which significantly benefited from the strong 25–30% rally in Indian financials during 2025, contributing meaningfully to returns. Additionally, timely tactical calls—such as increasing equity exposure from 50% to 63% ahead of the year-end rally—helped capture upside efficiently and the fund also maintained a relatively concentrated portfolio, allowing winners to meaningfully impact performance.
Launched on March 20, 2001, this multi asset allocation completed 25 years recently and is given five star rating by Value Research. According to Morningstar, this is a non-rateable category fund.
With the market witnessing volatility in the short term, the fund has offered the second highest return in the last one year of around 17.73%. The highest was 19.46% by Kotak Multi Asset Allocation Fund.
On the basis of yearly returns, the fund has not posted negative returns in the last 10 calendar years i.e. from 2016 to 2025. Further analysis showed that among all the multi asset allocation funds, Quant Multi Asset Allocation Fund has offered the highest returns in 2016, 2018, 2020, 2021, and 2024 whereas in 2017, it gave the lowest return of around 1.99% in the multi asset allocation category.
Outperformance due to strategy or favourable market conditions?
Shinde said that beyond equities, the fund’s active asset allocation added further alpha, it tactically adjusted exposures by introducing silver and later exiting, adding REITs during volatile phases for stability, and subsequently reducing them as equity valuations became more reasonable and equity allocation increased.
He also said that gold, which was earlier absent, was also added as a diversification play and importantly, the fund consistently maintained elevated cash levels (often above 15%), enabling both downside protection during uncertain phases and flexibility to deploy capital during market opportunities.
While favourable market conditions—especially in financials and technology—did support returns, the consistency of outperformance across cycles indicates that disciplined valuation focus, tactical allocation shifts, and active risk management have been the primary contributors rather than just market tailwinds, Shinde said in last.
The investment objective of the fund is to generate capital appreciation and provide long term growth opportunities by investing in instruments across the three asset classes.
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The performance is benchmarked against MCX iCOMDEX Composite Index and is managed by Sandeep Tandon, Ankit Pande, Varun Pattani, Ayusha Kumbhat, Yug Tibrewal, Sameer Kate, Sanjeev Sharma.
Being a multi asset allocation fund, the fund holds 54.42% in large caps, 7.51% in mid caps, 34.92% in others, and 3.15% in small caps. In comparison to the multi asset allocation category, the fund is overweight on large caps.
Time to choose a multi asset allocation strategy?
Shinde said that in the current environment—where equity valuations are moderate and global uncertainties persist—a multi-asset allocation fund can form a core allocation of nearly 20–40% of an investor’s portfolio, depending on risk profile and for conservative to moderate investors, this allocation can be higher as the fund itself dynamically manages risk across asset classes.
From an investment approach standpoint, while SIPs remain a prudent route to navigate volatility and average out costs, lumpsum investments can also be considered in this category, provided the investor selects the right fund and given the dynamic nature of these funds—where the fund manager actively adjusts allocation across equity, debt, commodities, and cash—the category is relatively better positioned to handle timing risk compared to pure equity funds, Shinde further said.
This multi asset allocation fund has the highest allocation in banks of around 27.81%, followed by 8.26% in finance. The fund had 6.71% and 6.56% in G-sec and Insurance.
Risk ratio parameters of fund
The PE and PBV ratio of the multi asset allocation fund were recorded at 34.68 times and 5.19 times respectively whereas the dividend yield ratio was recorded at 2.13 times as of February 2026.
ETMutualFunds analysed the other key ratios of the fund in a three year period. Based on the last three years, the scheme has offered a Treynor ratio of 0.39 and an alpha of 0.47 The sortino ratio of the scheme was recorded at 0.97. The return due to net selectivity was recorded at (2.19) and return due to improper diversification was recorded at 2.67 in the last three years.
What are multi asset allocation mutual funds?
Multi-asset allocation funds invest across equities, debt and commodities such as gold and silver, offering built-in diversification within a single scheme. For many investors, this structure reduces the need to actively rebalance portfolios during uncertain market phases.
Gold and silver as precious metals have drawn attention as both are traditionally seen as hedges during periods of uncertainty. Gold is often preferred for capital protection, while silver benefits from both safe-haven demand and its industrial use.
Multi asset allocation funds vs precious metals ETFs: which one to choose?
Shinde said that investors should prefer multi-asset allocation funds over taking separate exposure to gold and silver as in the current environment, where different asset classes are moving in cycles and leadership keeps shifting, a dynamic multi-asset fund provides a more balanced and efficient way to participate across equities, debt, and commodities.
He further said that instead of taking concentrated bets on gold or silver—which can be volatile and timing-dependent—multi-asset funds actively manage allocation, increasing or reducing exposure based on valuations and market conditions and this ensures better risk management and more consistent returns over time. For most investors, especially those seeking stability and disciplined allocation, multi-asset funds are the more suitable and complete solution.
Other multi asset allocation funds
Apart from Quant Multi Asset Allocation Fund, five other funds have completed seven years of existence in the market. These funds posted a return ranging between 11.69% to 16.17% in the last seven years.
Shinde said that the outlook for multi-asset allocation funds remains strong and relevant, particularly in a phase where markets are expected to be more volatile and non-linear and with equities no longer uniformly cheap and global macro uncertainties still present, the ability to dynamically shift between equities, debt, commodities, and cash becomes critical.
He further said that these funds are well-positioned to deliver more stable, risk-adjusted returns by participating in equity upside while cushioning downside through debt, gold, and tactical cash allocation and over the medium to long term, they are likely to remain an important portfolio construct, especially for investors seeking consistency over pure return maximization.
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)
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