Another eventful month. The biggest news of this month was that we had a war with Pakistan. The war was short, and the ceasefire arrived in just three days. From the market’s perspective, it mostly held during those three days. And once the ceasefire was announced, it bounced strongly. The below chart shows the dip and the bounce. The low was not that low, and it was much higher than the low of the last month.

Last month was Trumponomics, this month was Operation Sindoor. Like I said last month, the uncertainties are quite a few. However, as it is getting to be a norm, our three disciplined investors are going ahead with their investment plans.

The Update

As planned, Indu, Muthu and Shekhar invested additional INR 20000 this month. The prices shown below are closing prices of 26^th May.

Indu’s portfolio (The index fan) –

Mutual Fund Scheme	Existing Units	New Investment	NAV	New Units	Total Units	Value
ICICI Pru Nifty 100 ETF	6099.824	20000	28.22	708.717	6808.542	192137.04

Invested Amount	180000
Current Value	192137

Muthu’s portfolio (the mutual funds sahi hai guy) –

Sr No	Mutual Fund Scheme	Existing Units	New Investment	NAV	New Units	Total Units	Value
1	ICICI Large and Mid Cap fund	34.915	4000	992.9	4.029	38.943	38666.96
2	HDFC Mid-cap Opprtunities fund	182.492	4000	187.87	21.291	203.783	38284.71
3	Parag Parikh Flexi Cap fund	403.423	4000	82.98	48.204	451.628	37476.06
4	Nippon India Multi Cap fund	119.586	4000	293.56	13.626	133.212	39105.75
5	HDFC Small Cap fund	255.335	4000	134.16	29.815	285.150	38255.68

Invested Amount	180000
Current Value	191789.2

Shekhar’s Portfolio (the stock picker) –

Stock	Existing Shares	New Investment	Buy Price	New Shares	Total Shares	Value
Aarti Industries	7.51	400	468.1	0.85	8.36	3915.159
Aarti Pharma	4.84	400	878.95	0.46	5.29	4650.612
Asian Paints	1.40	400	2327.2	0.17	1.57	3659.228
Astral	2.26	400	1508.7	0.27	2.53	3810.334
Axis Bank	3.21	400	1215.2	0.33	3.54	4304.232
Bajaj Finance	0.41	400	9269.5	0.04	0.45	4154.173
Bajaj Finserv	1.77	400	2052.6	0.19	1.97	4036.462
Bajaj Housing Finance	28.48	400	124.19	3.22	31.71	3937.45
Britannia	0.63	400	5525	0.07	0.70	3890.022
Chola Investment	2.45	400	1644.8	0.24	2.69	4431.814
Dabur	6.23	400	480.3	0.83	7.06	3391.478
Deepak Nitrite	1.48	400	2045.2	0.20	1.68	3432.319
Devyani International	18.90	400	175.54	2.28	21.17	3716.924
Divis Labs	0.55	400	6737	0.06	0.61	4118.474
DMART Avenue Supermart	0.86	400	4138.4	0.10	0.96	3978.714
Eicher	0.61	400	5427.5	0.07	0.68	3711.235
Garware Technical	4.08	400	892.3	0.45	4.53	4043.573
Havells	2.09	400	1567.4	0.26	2.34	3674.907
HCL Tech	1.86	400	1673.6	0.24	2.10	3510.164
HDFC Bank	1.88	400	1940.2	0.21	2.09	4049.012
HUL	1.37	400	2394.1	0.17	1.54	3682.826
ICICI Bank	2.56	400	1460.6	0.27	2.84	4146.3
Indian Hotels	4.12	400	774.8	0.52	4.63	3588.891
Infosys	1.81	400	1580.5	0.25	2.07	3265.467
Jio Finance	13.33	400	281.75	1.42	14.75	4154.639
Kotak Mahindra Bank	1.63	400	2089.3	0.19	1.82	3808.916
L&T Technologies	0.64	400	4510.3	0.09	0.72	3265.767
LTI Mindtree	0.59	400	5111.6	0.08	0.67	3413.475
Mankind Pharma	1.29	400	2430.3	0.16	1.46	3538.484
Manyavar Vedant Fashions	3.29	400	739.1	0.54	3.83	2828.385
Metro Shoes	2.76	400.00	1210.8	0.33	3.09	3746.699
Muthoot Finance	1.47	400	2095	0.19	1.66	3474.244
Naukri Info Edge*	2.18	400	1473.5	0.27	2.46	3618.077
Nestle	1.43	400	2454	0.16	1.60	3920.258
Nykaa	18.82	400	200.26	2.00	20.81	4168.036
Page Industries	0.07	400	47230	0.01	0.08	3765.948
PayTM	3.99	400	870	0.46	4.45	3873.948
Pidilite	1.12	400	3045.2	0.13	1.25	3817.906
Reliance	2.56	400	1434.8	0.28	2.84	4071.337
SRF	1.19	400	2891.4	0.14	1.33	3848.419
Tata Consumer	3.18	400	1146.3	0.35	3.53	4041.126
Tata Elxsi	0.53	400	6431.5	0.06	0.59	3790.538
Tata Motors	4.50	400	729	0.55	5.05	3683.595
TCS	0.82	400	3537.3	0.11	0.93	3293.115
Titan	0.96	400	3610.3	0.11	1.07	3875.275
Torrent Pharma	1.00	400	3187.4	0.13	1.13	3589.613
Trent	0.60	400	5526	0.07	0.67	3703.561
Tube Investments	1.08	400	3057.1	0.13	1.21	3690.786
Varun Beverages	6.06	400	482.7	0.83	6.88	3323.043
Zomato	14.77	400	226.8	1.76	16.53	3748.716

*Info Edge went through a stock split of 1:5 this month. The numbers are updated for that. We didn’t have any dividend credit this month.

Invested Amount	180000
Current Value	189153.7

Finally, after four months of disciplined investments we are able to see some sort of returns getting generated. In this month, even including the new investments done on 26^th of the month, all three strategies are up by at least 5%. However, our three investors are not in it for months or even years. We are in this for a decade or more.

The tussle between the three strategies continues in this month. The MF based portfolio has again flipped the position with the Stocks based portfolio. Indu’s Index fund is still ahead of the other two, but barely. There isn’t much difference between Indu’s and Muthu’s portfolios.

The comparison and the graph

Month	Indu	Muthu	Shekhar	Investment
Jan-25	100000	100000	100000	100000
Feb-25	117247.7	115538.4	116557.2	120000
Mar-25	142363.5	140184.6	138494.2	140000
Apr-25	165366.2	162416	163500.4	160000
May-25	192137	191789.2	189153.7	180000

Four months are too short a time to draw any conclusions. In my view any conclusion will be valid only after we have had a really long run with these strategies. I have a feeling that there will be quite a few readers who will be able to pick holes in my choice of mutual funds and stocks to build the portfolios. Once I have tracked these for six months or so, I will talk about why these picks.

Disclaimer: I hold all the stocks and mutual funds mentioned on this page in my personal portfolio.