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An analysis of the 5-year performance of active equity funds ending March 2023 across fund categories shows that only a few schemes in categories like large cap, flexi cap, mid cap, ELSS and focused funds were able to beat their respective benchmarks.
On the other hand, over half of the schemes in categories like small cap funds, sectoral and thematic funds and value funds have beaten their benchmarks in the 5-year period ending March, 2024.
Interestingly, 80% of dividend yield funds have beaten their respective benchmarks in the 5-year period.
Further, all three funds in the contra funds category have beaten their benchmark with alpha ranging from 0.29% to 7.26%.
Let us look at the report card of active equity funds based on their 5-year performance ending March 2024.
Large cap funds
The analysis of large cap funds shows that 27% of funds have outperformed their benchmark in a 5-year period. ICICI Prudential Bluechip Fund, Baroda BNP Paribas Large Cap Fund and Nippon India Large Cap Fund are the top three funds in terms of performance.
Alpha: Ranges between 2.19% and 0.46%
Large and midcap funds
In the large and midcap category, of the 21 funds, 4 or 19% of the funds have beaten their benchmark. Top two funds that have beaten their benchmark are Quant Large and Mid Cap Fund with alpha of 5.51% and Bank of India Large & Mid Cap Equity Fund with 1.64% alpha. ICICI Prudential Large & Mid Cap Fund and HDFC Large and Mid Cap Fund have also beaten their benchmark by 1.07% and 0.69%, respectively.
Alpha: Ranges from 5.51% to 0.69%
Mid cap funds
Of the total 22 mid cap funds, 27% or 6 funds have beaten their benchmarks. Quant Mid Cap Fund, Motilal Oswal Midcap Fund and Mahindra Manulife Mid Cap Fund are the top three funds in terms of performance and generated alpha of 6.43%, 2.25% and 0.84%, respectively.
Alpha: Ranges from 6.43% to 0.45%
Small cap funds
Close to 74% of the total small cap funds have generated excess returns over their benchmark. Quant Small Cap Fund, Bank of India Small Cap Fund and Nippon India Small Cap Fund are the top three funds in the category with the highest outperformance of 12.78%, 6.59% and 5.98%, respectively.
Alpha: Ranges between 12.76% and 0.25%
Flexi cap funds
30% or 7 out of 23 funds have beaten their benchmark. Quant Flexi Cap Fund tops the list with excess returns of 12.12% over its benchmark. Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund and JM Flexicap Fund are the next best performing funds with an outperformance of 5.61% and 5.03%, respectively.
Alpha: Ranges from 12.12% to 0.76%
ELSS
35% of ELSS has beaten their benchmark in the 5-year period. Quant ELSS Tax Saver Fund (13.54%), Bank of India ELSS Tax Saver Fund (7.39%) and SBI Long Term Equity Fund (3.28%) are the top three ELSS in terms of performance.
Alpha: Ranges from 13.54% to 0.69%
Sectoral and thematic funds
40 out of 79 or 51% of the sectoral and thematic funds have outperformed their benchmark. Quant Infrastructure Fund has generated the highest alpha of 11.96%. Sundaram Services Fund and Tata India Pharma & Healthcare Fund are the next top two funds in this space with outperformance of 7.91 and 6.37%, respectively.
Alpha: Ranges between 11.96% and 0.07%
Focused funds
6 out of 16 focused funds have generated alpha in 5 years. Quant Focused Fund, 360 ONE Focused Equity Fund and ICICI Prudential Focused Equity Fund are the top three focused funds in this category.
Alpha: Ranges from 4.57% to 0.59%
Value funds
57% or 8 out of 14 funds have beaten their benchmarks. ICICI Prudential Value Discovery Fund, JM Value Fund and Nippon India Value Fund are the top three funds in terms of performance. They have generated alpha of 4.59%, 4.17% and 3.61%, respectively.
Alpha: Ranges between 4.59% and 0.39%
Click here to see the complete list of funds. Outperformers are marked in yellow.
