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Franklin Templeton’s new mutual fund scheme: Franklin Templeton (India) announced the launch of Sapphire Equity Long‑Short SIF on Thursday, April 2, its first offering under the Specialised Investment Funds (SIF). Let’s understand what the SIF is and how it stands apart from other equity plans.
Sapphire Equity Long‑Short SIF: It is an Equity Long Short Fund under the SIF (Specialised Investment Funds) framework, investing across Nifty 500 stocks to enable diversified exposure across large, mid and small-cap segments. Sapphire Equity Long‑Short SIF aims to seek long-term capital appreciation across market cycles, through a proprietary, model-driven quantitative strategy, anchored in disciplined stock selection, dynamic allocation, and robust risk management.
How stocks are selected in Sapphire Equity Long‑Short SIF
1. The portfolio construction follows a disciplined, research-driven process, where the investment team overlays its judgment with careful consideration of liquidity, sector exposure, size, risk and style characteristics to manage unintended biases.
2. By applying factor insights in a disciplined way on both the long and short sides, the strategy is designed to more effectively express relative views, which could protect alpha in more challenging or down markets.
3. The differentiator lies in blending dynamic factor insights with oversight on risk and positioning, helping the strategy capture distinctive opportunities while maintaining stability through varied market environments
What makes SIF different from other equity plans?
Speaking on the launch, Avinash Satwalekar, President, Franklin Templeton – India, said, “Investors today are navigating markets that move through different phases rapidly, making disciplined and flexible investment strategies increasingly important. SIF is designed for investors with a higher risk appetite, offering the potential for relatively higher returns while also being tax-efficient.
What differentiates a SIF strategy from a conventional mutual fund is that SIFs can potentially take advantage of market shifts by taking short positions up to 25 per cent of their net assets, which can help reduce downside risk during market corrections.”
The Sapphire Equity Long-Short SIF uses Franklin Templeton’s long experience in quantitative investing. It follows a data-driven approach, analysing stocks using over 40 factors such as quality, value, sentiment, and other indicators. It also has a specific method to identify stocks that may fall in value.
The strategy is built on a structured system that looks for opportunities in equities while managing risk through a clear long-short investment approach.
Arihant Jain, Portfolio Manager, Sapphire Equity Long‑Short SIF, said: “The underlying quantitative model for the strategy is designed to assess stocks using a broad set of leading and lagging indicators, recognising that different factors tend to perform differently across market environments.
The framework systematically scores and ranks stocks for both long exposure and selective short positioning, enabling a more balanced response to shifts in the market. The model is designed to adapt while preserving a strong emphasis on risk management.”
This New Fund Offer opens on April 10, 2026 and will last till April 24, 2026
Investment strategy reopening (for buying and selling): May 4, 2026
Fund Manager: Arihant Jain
Minimum investment amount: Rs 10 lakh for the first investment, and in multiples of Rs 10,000 thereafter
(Disclaimer: The above article is meant for informational purposes only, and should not be considered as any investment advice. ET NOW DIGITAL suggests its readers/audience to consult their financial advisors before making any money related decisions.)
