Why diversified equity schemes continue to be the best way for investors to participate in stocks

Source: Economic Times 03:00:PM May 25, 2015 You can pity Indian fund managers. They spend days poring over data, run dozens of checks, meet promoters and visit plants before picking a stock for their funds portfolio. But all this effort apparently goes in vain. A study by the S&P Dow Jones Indices says a majority of the large-cap actively managed funds in India underperformed the S&P BSE 100 index in the five years ending 31 December 2014. In the three year period, almost 58% of these funds could not keep up with the index. The S&P Indices Versus Active Funds (SPIVA) study suggests that instead of active management, an index based ETF could have earned better returns.