The equity schemes of UTI Mutual Fund are on a high, as the current stock market rally has boosted their valuations across-the-board.

Since March 2003, nine out of 20 equity schemes of UTI MF have registered gains in excess of 37.5 per cent, thereby outperforming the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex, which increased by 35.31 per cent during the same period.

Mastergain '92 recorded the highest gain in net asset value, which jumped 47.11 per cent from Rs 9.17 in March 2003 to Rs 13.49 on August 22.

Due to good monsoons, the scheme allocated 13 per cent of its portfolio to consumer product stocks. This has contributed to its sterling performance.

Mastergain '92 also seems confident about the future potential of information, communication and entertainment stocks.

It has increased its holdings in Zee Telefilms and MTNL by 500,000 and 250,000 shares, respectively, between April 1, 2003 and June-end.

Second on the list of top performing schemes is Growth Sector Fund Petro, which returned 45.89 per cent. The NAV of this scheme was at Rs 18.09 on August 22.

Benefiting from the performance of petroleum stocks in the last one year, the scheme declared a dividend of 12 per cent in June 2003.

GSF Petro acquired more than 0.5 lakh shares of Reliance, HPCL and Gail during the April-June quarter. However, it has totally exited from Kochi Refineries.

Third on the list is MEP '99, whose NAV jumped sharply from Rs 17.20 at the end of March 2003 to Rs 24.38, giving a return of 41.74 per cent.

The other major gainers included the Pharma Growth Sector Fund, US '92 and MEP '98 with returns of 41.28, 40.66 and 40.61 per cent, respectively.

It takes one look at the overall portfolio of UTI MF's equity schemes to confirm the fact that their fund managers seem to be bullish on automobile and fertiliser stocks.

They managed to acquire 12.15 lakh (1.2 million) shares of Maruti Udyog. The shares are spread across 12 schemes. Mastergain '92 and Mastershare are the top holders.

Each scheme holds more than 400,000 shares of Maruti. Fund managers also increased their holdings in RCF by 19.43 lakh (1.9 million) shares during the quarter April-June 2003.

In the same quarter, UTI MF delighted investors by declaring attractive dividends of more than 12 per cent in four equity schemes.

Investors in Master Value Fund had a gala time. The scheme declared dividends twice - 10 per cent in April 2003 and 30 per cent in July.

Even though Index Select Equity Fund did not manage to beat the BSE Sensex or the National Stock Exchange's S&P CNX Nifty index, it declared a 15 per cent dividend in July 2003.

The Petro Growth Sector Fund declared a 12 per cent dividend in June 2003, while Master Growth paid out the same in July 2003.