Franklin Templeton Announces Launch of Sapphire Equity Long-Short SIF

MUMBAI:
Franklin Templeton (India) today announced the launch of Sapphire Equity Long‑Short SIF, its first offering under the Specialised Investment Funds (SIF). It is an Equity Long Short Fund under the SIF 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. The NFO for Sapphire Equity LongShort SIF will be open for subscription from April 10, 2026, to April 24, 2026.

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 upto 25% of their net assets, which can help reduce downside risk during market corrections”

He added, “The Sapphire Equity LongShort SIF leverages Franklin Templeton’s decades of experience in systematic and quantitative investing. Our proprietary, datadriven quantitative approach evaluates stocks using over 40 factors across Quality, Value, Sentiment and Alternative indicators, with a dedicated framework for identifying short opportunities. Our SIF is built on a structured, data‑driven quantitative approach that evaluates opportunities across equities, while managing risk efficiently through a defined long‑short framework.”

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, recognizing 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.”

“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. 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 and which could protect alpha in more challenging or down markets. Our differentiator lies in blending dynamic factor insights with oversight on risk and positioning, helping the strategy capture distinctive opportunity while maintaining stability through varied market environments.”