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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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