Kotak Gilt Investment Fund

Portfolio manager Abhishek Bisen has been with the fund house since October 2006. He is backed by an eight-member investment team. The presence of the fixed-income head--Lakshmi Iyer--is a big positive, and her contribution gives the team an edge. Duration play and yield-curve positioning are the main sources of return.

The investment process is research based with an overlay of active trading executed through government securities. The strategy’s edge resides in the team’s ability to use macro views based on its research and then develop strong conviction and position the portfolio across the yield curve. The investment team incorporates views of economists and sell-side research analysts. The interest-rate direction is determined by conducting a detailed analysis of various factors such as gross domestic product, international investment position, credit and deposit growth, liquidity, currency movements, monetary and fiscal policy, global factors, and prevailing market sentiment. In a bid to attain the best possible yield, the manager takes tactical calls using short-term influencing factors such as liquidity conditions in the market, inflation, money supply, market sentiments, trader positions, open market operations by the Reserve Bank of India, auction or issuance of securities  and monetary.

Over time, the manager seeks to add value through the less-frequented corners of the government-bond market such as state development loans to benefit from the additional spreads they offer compared with central government treasuries.