In the past one year, Nifty has declined 16% but except FMCG and pharma sector funds, other sector funds have failed to beat their respective benchmarks
In the past one year, the Indian markets have declined 16 percent whereas the FMCG sector funds (up 14.49%) and pharma sector funds (down 3.17%) have been the least impacted. Among the laggards, energy & power sector funds (down 28.10%) topped the list followed by infra sector funds (down 26.33%).
Furthermore, the sector funds category (except FMCG and pharma sector funds) has failed to outperform their respective sector benchmarks convincingly in the span of one-year.
| 1-Year | 9-months | 6-months | 3-months | 1-month | |
| Bank Sector Funds | |||||
| Sector Index | Underperform | Underperform | Outperform | Underperform | Underperform |
| Energy & Power Sector Funds | |||||
| Sector Index | Underperform | Underperform | Outperform | Underperform | Underperform |
| FMCG Sector Funds | |||||
| Sector Index | Outperform | Outperform | Outperform | Underperform | Underperform |
| Infra Sector Funds | |||||
| Sector Index | Underperform | Underperform | Underperform | Underperform | Underperform |
| Media & Ent Sector Funds | |||||
| Sector Index | NA* | ||||
| Pharma Sector Funds | |||||
| Sector Index | Outperform | Outperform | Outperform | Underperform | Underperform |
| Services Sector Funds | |||||
| Sector Index | Underperform | Underperform | Underperform | Underperform | Underperform |
| TECk Sector Funds | |||||
| Sector Index | Underperform | Underperform | Underperform | Underperform | Underperform |
| NA* - Index data is not available in the public domain | |||||
Will such underperformance force the fund house to merge their sector funds with their top performing equity funds, we need to wait and watch.
Of late, fund house have been merging sector funds or theme based funds into diversified equity funds to broaden their investment objective to provide better returns in the long run.
Read: Scheme mergers on the rise as fund houses seek to consolidate product portfolios
