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  • MF News Equity funds that outperformed in 5 years

    Equity funds that outperformed in 5 years

    A report card of performance data available on AMFI shows that handful of schemes in popular scheme categories based on their AUM have generated alpha in five-year period ending on March 2025.
    Nishant Patnaik Apr 29, 2025

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    An analysis of the 5-year performance of active equity funds ending March 2025 across fund categories available on the AMFI website shows that only a few schemes in categories like large cap, mid cap, small cap, flexi cap, ELSS, and focused funds were able to beat their respective benchmarks.

    On the other hand, close to half of the schemes in categories such as sectoral and thematic funds and value funds have beaten their benchmarks over the 5-year period ending March 2025.

    Interestingly, 83% of dividend yield funds have outperformed their respective benchmarks over the same period.

    Further, all three funds in the contra funds category have beaten their benchmarks, with an average alpha of 4.53%.

    Let us look at the report card of some popular active equity fund categories based on their 5-year performance ending March 2025:

    Large Cap Funds

    The analysis of large cap funds shows that only 4 funds have outperformed their benchmarks over the 5-year period. Nippon India Large Cap Fund, ICICI Prudential Bluechip Fund, HDFC Large Cap Fund, and Aditya Birla Sun Life Frontline Equity Fund are the top performers.

    Alpha: Ranges between 3.38% and 0.45%

    Large and Midcap Funds

    In the large and midcap category, out of 25 funds, 5 (or 20%) have beaten their benchmarks.

    The top two funds are ICICI Prudential Large & Mid Cap Fund with an alpha of 2.7% and UTI Large & Mid Cap Equity Fund with an alpha of 2.01%.

    HDFC Large & Mid Cap Fund, Bandhan Core Equity Fund, and Motilal Oswal Large & Mid Cap Fund have also outperformed their benchmarks by 1.65%, 1.49%, and 0.71%, respectively.

    Alpha: Ranges from 2.70% to 0.71

    Mid Cap Funds

    Out of the 24 mid cap funds, 5 or 21% have beaten their benchmarks.

    Motilal Oswal Midcap Fund, Quant Mid Cap Fund, and Edelweiss Mid Cap Fund are the top three performers, generating alphas of 2.29%, 1.68%, and 0.26%, respectively.

    Nippon India Growth Fund and HDFC Mid-Cap Opportunities Fund are the other two schemes that generated alpha in the last five years.

    Alpha: Ranges from 2.29% to 0.13%

    Small Cap Funds

    Only 2 small cap funds — Quant Small Cap Fund and Nippon India Small Cap Fund — have generated excess returns over their benchmarks.

    Alpha: Ranges between 12.42% and 3.18%

    Flexi Cap Funds

    About 22% or 5 out of 23 flexi cap funds have beaten their benchmarks.

    Quant Flexi Cap Fund tops the list with excess returns of 10.55%.

    HDFC Flexi Cap Fund and Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund are the next best performers, with outperformance of 5.88% and 4.01%, respectively.

    Alpha: Ranges from 10.55% to 2.04%

    ELSS

    35% or 13 out of 37 ELSSs have beaten their benchmarks over the 5-year period.

    Quant ELSS Tax Saver Fund (10.66%), SBI Long Term Equity Fund (4.82%), and Bandhan ELSS Tax Saver Fund (3.95%) are the top three ELSS performers.

    Alpha: Ranges from 10.66% to 0.24%

     

    Sectoral and Thematic Funds

    Of the 83 sectoral and thematic funds, 37 (or 45%) have outperformed their benchmarks.

    Quant Infrastructure Fund has generated the highest alpha of 12.59%.

    ICICI Prudential Commodity Fund and ICICI Prudential India Opportunities Fund are next, with outperformance of 10.19% and 9.56%, respectively.

    Alpha: Ranges between 12.59% and 0.10%

    Focused Funds

    6 out of 20 focused funds have generated alpha over 5 years.

    HDFC Focused 30 Fund, ICICI Prudential Focused Equity Fund, and Nippon India Focused Equity Fund are the top three performers.

    Alpha: Ranges from 5.88% to 0.08%

    Value Funds

    11 out of 14 or 79% of value funds have beaten their benchmarks.

    Bandhan Sterling Value Fund, ICICI Prudential Value Discovery Fund, and Templeton India Value Fund are the top performers, with alphas of 9.27%, 6.53%, and 6.34%, respectively.

    Alpha: Ranges between 9.27% and 0.47%

    Multi cap funds

    3 out of 9 or 33% multicap funds have generated alpha in the last five years. Edelweiss Recently Listed IPO Fund, Quant Active Fund and Nippon India Multicap Fund are the top performers in this category.

    Alpha: Ranges between 6.02% and 2.95%

    Contra Funds

    All 3 schemes or 100% contra funds have generated alpha in five years.

    SBI Contra Fund has delivered alpha of 10.46% in this category in five-year period ending on March 2025.

    Kotak India EQ Contra Fund and Invesco India Contra Fund have also outperformed their respective benchmarks by 2.14% and 0.99%, respectively in five-year period.

    Alpha: Ranges between 10.46% and 0.99%

    Dividend Yield Funds

    83% or 6 out of 5 dividend yield funds have beaten their benchmarks in five years.

    ICICI Prudential Dividend Yield Equity Fund has delivered excess return of 7.43% over its benchmark in five-year period.

    Templeton India Equity Income Fund and Aditya Birla Sun Life Dividend Yield Fund occupy the second and third spots with outperformance of 5.07% and 1.82%, respectively.

    LIC MF Dividend Yield Fund and UTI Dividend Yield Fund are the other outperformers in this category.

    Alpha: Ranges from 7.43% to -1.55%

    Click here to see the complete list of funds. Outperformers are marked in yellow.

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    3 Comments
    PREM KUMAR · 1 month ago `
    Dear all, this is for last five years in which we have seen sharp decline and steep rise. This type of situation always give great return whether fund has beaten their benchmark or not. Alltogether great gains!
    Rohit Grover · 1 month ago `
    Is 5 year a right benchmark considering the base of 31st mar'2020 where marker crashed by 33 odd %. Many fund must have fallen less due to cash calls or covered call giving them a higher base as compared to index.

    Secondly, is quant fund a right fund to consider? Quant flexicap had a AUM of less than a Crore back in 2020. Is it fair to compare it with funds having excess of >10k Crs.

    Best is to calculate rolling returns and refrain from making any one time backdated returns with unfair high base and low base
    Nishant Patnaik · 1 month ago
    Hi Rohit, this story is based on AMFI data. There is no public disclosure related to rolling returns for such an analysis. Also, five year period is good way to evaluate performance of an equity fund considering its long term nature.
    Reply
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