Over 26 per cent of equity mutual funds in India outperform respective benchmarks in January

The assets under management (AUM) of equity mutual funds stood at Rs 24,85,844 crore

Mumbai: More than 26 per cent of equity mutual funds in India outperformed their respective benchmarks in January this year, a report said on Monday.

The report, based on analysis of 291 open-ended equity diversified funds, found that 76 mutual fund schemes managed to deliver better returns than their respective indices during January.

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The assets under management (AUM) of equity mutual funds stood at Rs 24,85,844 crore (excluding sectoral/thematic Funds), the report by PL Wealth Management, a part of Prabhudas Liladhar, said.

However, this was a drop by 3.83 per cent from Rs 25,84,851 crore in December 2024 when 60.82 per cent of schemes had outperformed. Small Cap Funds emerged as the best-performing category, with 86.21 per cent of schemes surpassing their benchmark — the Nifty Smallcap 250 TRI.

Equity Linked Savings Schemes (ELSS) and Focused Funds followed, with 31.71 per cent and 28.57 per cent of funds outperforming their benchmarks, respectively. On the other hand, Large Cap Funds struggled the most, with none of the schemes outperforming the Nifty 50 TRI benchmark.

Other fund categories, such as Flexi Cap and Mid Cap Funds, showed moderate performance, with 23.08 per cent and 17.24 per cent of their schemes beating their benchmarks. Looking at a broader time frame, the report also found that over the past year, 70.29 per cent of 276 analysed equity mutual funds outperformed their respective benchmarks.

In the previous month for a one-year return metric, 71.27 per cent of the schemes were able to deliver better-than-benchmark returns. ”Investors are advised to stick to their SIP investments and keep a long-term focus,” the report by PL Wealth Management said.

It further added that systematic investment plans (SIPs) over the past three years have yielded a return of more than 15 per cent per annum on average for the top quartile equity funds.