2021 saw a substantial increase in the performance of large-cap funds in the Indian market. More than 50% of large-cap equity schemes performed better than their benchmark, and only 26.83% of equity-linked schemes performed less than their benchmark as per the latest S&P Indices Versus Active Funds (SPIVA) India scorecard.
However, the performance of these large-cap equity schemes over a longer period painted an entirely different story. As per the same scorecard, 82.26% of large-cap funds failed to perform more than their benchmark (S&P BSE 100) over five years. The number was 79.07% for ELSS funds with the S&P BSE 200 benchmark. There was a slight improvement over the 10 years as 68% of the large-caps underperformed their benchmark.
Mid-cap and small-cap schemes performed better in terms of returns than Large-cap funds. For one year, 50% of Mid and Small-cap funds underperformed S&P BSE 400 MidSmall Cap Index. The number was 58.14% over five years. As per the same SPIVA scorecard, 54.55% of large-cap, 39.02% of active ELSS, and 37.25% of mid and small-cap funds failed to beat their returns in half a year ending December 2021. As per the SPIVA scorecard, for a one year monitoring period ending in June 2021, 86.2% of Indian equity large-cap funds and 53.7% of ELSS funds had underperformed their respective benchmarks.
Akash Jain, associate director, global research and design, S&P Dow Jones Indices, said, “Over the one year ending December 2021, mid-/small-cap was the best performing fund category amongst the equities covered in the SPIVA India Scorecard. The benchmark for this category, the S&P BSE 400 MidSmallCap Index, was up 51% in the same period. Though, market participants in this category of active funds may have witnessed a wider spread in fund returns as the difference in the first & third quartile fund was 19%, thus presenting fund selection challenges.”
For any clarifications/feedback on the topic, please get in touch with the writer at sourabh.dubey@cleartax.i.n
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