What a month we have had? At the start of my last month’s update I had written – “as if Nifty 50 has made an interim bottom near 22,000 for the time being and will consolidate for some time in the current range”. This belief was almost immediately tested by “Trumponomics” and the game of tariffs. Below is Nifty 50 for the past month –

It retested the interim bottom and even threatened to go below. But then as it happens with Trump, the tariffs came with multiple avatars over a period of a few days. Somehow all of that made the market believe that even though nothing is certain, it’s not too bad either. And that relief is what you can see in the graph above.

The uncertainties are quite a few. However, 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 25^th April (26^th was Saturday).

Indu’s portfolio (The index fan) –

Mutual Fund Scheme	Existing Units	New Investment	NAV	New Units	Total Units	Value
ICICI Pru Nifty 100 ETF	5362.089	20000	27.11	737.735	6099.824	165366.24

Invested Amount	160000
Current Value	165366.2

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	30.694	4000	947.57	4.221	34.915	33084.27
2	HDFC Mid-cap Opprtunities fund	159.848	4000	176.65	22.644	182.492	32237.15
3	Parag Parikh Flexi Cap fund	353.888	4000	80.75	49.536	403.423	32576.42
4	Nippon India Multi Cap fund	105.033	4000	274.86	14.553	119.586	32869.49
5	HDFC Small Cap fund	223.063	4000	123.95	32.271	255.335	31648.71

Invested Amount	160000
Current Value	162416

Shekhar’s Portfolio (the stock picker) –

Stock	Existing Shares	New Investment	Buy Price	New Shares	Total Shares	Value
Aarti Industries	6.58	400	428.95	0.93	7.51	3221.165
Aarti Pharma	4.29	400	735.15	0.54	4.84	3555.193
Asian Paints	1.24	400	2431.6	0.16	1.40	3405.439
Astral	1.96	400	1343.6	0.30	2.26	3037.134
Axis Bank	2.87	400	1166.3	0.34	3.21	3747.124
Bajaj Finance	0.36	400	9112	0.04	0.41	3690.385
Bajaj Finserv	1.58	400	2045.5	0.20	1.77	3623.883
Bajaj Housing Finance	25.29	400	125.04	3.20	28.48	3561.662
Britannia	0.56	400	5420.5	0.07	0.63	3424.012
Chola Investment	2.19	400	1543.6	0.26	2.45	3783.748
Dabur	5.40	400	484.6	0.83	6.23	3018.26
Deepak Nitrite	1.28	400	1961.3	0.20	1.48	2907.925
Devyani International	16.61	400	175.2	2.28	18.90	3310.499
Divis Labs	0.49	400	6012.5	0.07	0.55	3318.588
DMART Avenue Supermart	0.77	400	4375.2	0.09	0.86	3783.489
Eicher	0.54	400	5575.5	0.07	0.61	3401.528
Garware Technical	3.62	400	856.9	0.47	4.08	3499.022
Havells	1.84	400	1599.8	0.25	2.09	3342.603
HCL Tech	1.60	400	1578.2	0.25	1.86	2932.875
HDFC Bank	1.67	400	1911.2	0.21	1.88	3594.47
HUL	1.20	400	2332.2	0.17	1.37	3197.948
ICICI Bank	2.28	400	1404.8	0.28	2.56	3603.179
Indian Hotels	3.61	400	786.35	0.51	4.12	3236.429
Infosys	1.54	400	1480.2	0.27	1.81	2683.622
Jio Finance	11.75	400	253.05	1.58	13.33	3372.179
Kotak Mahindra Bank	1.45	400	2204.4	0.18	1.63	3596.714
L&T Technologies	0.54	400	4256.1	0.09	0.64	2704.253
LTI Mindtree	0.50	400	4498.3	0.09	0.59	2651.912
Mankind Pharma	1.13	400	2557.5	0.16	1.29	3302.75
Manyavar Vedant Fashions	2.78	400	793.55	0.50	3.29	2607.285
Metro Shoes	2.36	441.22	1079.1	0.41	2.76	2982.675
Muthoot Finance	1.28	400	2093.2	0.19	1.47	3071.603
Naukri Info Edge	0.38	400	7038.5	0.06	0.44	3074.372
Nestle	1.27	400	2413.5	0.17	1.43	3462.16
Nykaa	16.73	400	191.57	2.09	18.82	3604.528
Page Industries	0.06	400	44605	0.01	0.07	3178.872
PayTM	3.54	400	875.65	0.46	3.99	3496.509
Pidilite	0.99	400	3011.2	0.13	1.12	3379.745
Reliance	2.25	400	1300.4	0.31	2.56	3327.437
SRF	1.06	400	2968.1	0.13	1.19	3539.895
Tata Consumer	2.83	400	1155.7	0.35	3.18	3670.985
Tata Elxsi	0.46	400	5612.5	0.07	0.53	2958.78
Tata Motors	3.89	400	655.25	0.61	4.50	2951.407
TCS	0.70	400	3448	0.12	0.82	2820.077
Titan	0.84	400	3365.2	0.12	0.96	3239.341
Torrent Pharma	0.88	400	3238.9	0.12	1.00	3241.149
Trent	0.52	400	5145	0.08	0.60	3075.791
Tube Investments	0.92	400	2573.9	0.16	1.08	2770.65
Varun Beverages	5.29	400	521.95	0.77	6.06	3160.726
Zomato	13.02	400	228.81	1.75	14.77	3378.393

*This month dividends came in for Metro Brands. I am counting that as re-invested in the same stock

Invested Amount	160000
Current Value	163500.4

It has been only three months and drawing any conclusion from this will be pre-mature. However, there is one pattern that I can see from the last 3 months, the index investing has been consistently on top. The mutual funds portfolio and the stocks portfolio exchange the positions. For example, last month Muthu’s portfolio was ahead of Shekhar’s but this month it’s the other way around. However, Indu’s portfolio has consistently been the best over these three months.

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

The index fund seems to be doing the best and by quite some distance. What looks more interesting is that an equal weighted portfolio of stocks that I picked seems to be doing quite okay as compared to a portfolio of some of the most popular mutual funds. Given that this is a really long term experiment, it’ll be interesting to see how these three strategies perform in an year or two.

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