The toppers were from sectoral/thematic funds. Aditya Birla SL PSU Equity Fund, the topper in the list, offered 84.86% in the financial year 2023-24 so far. SBI PSU Fund offered 79.20%.
Invesco India PSU Equity Fund and ICICI Pru PSU Equity Fund offered 75.78% and 75.55% respectively. HDFC Infrastructure Fund offered 73.78%.
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There were around 390 equity mutual fund schemes in the financial year 2023-24. Around 60 equity schemes offered more than 50% during the financial year. Five equity mutual fund schemes offered single-digit returns.
Seven equity schemes offered negative returns during the financial year. Edelweiss Gr China Equity Off-Shore Fund lost the most of around 15.10%. DSP World Mining Fund lost 8.48% and DSP World Agriculture Fund lost 7.90%
We considered all equity categories such as large cap, mid cap, small cap, large & mid cap, flexi cap, focused fund, ELSS, multi cap, value, contra fund, and sectoral/thematic fund categories. We considered regular and growth option schemes.
We calculated returns offered by equity mutual fund schemes during the financial year 2023-24. We calculated returns starting from April 1, 2023 to March 18, 2024.
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Note, the above exercise is not a recommendation. The exercise was done to find how equity mutual funds performed during the financial year 2023-24. One should not make investments/redemption decisions based on the above exercise. One should always consider risk appetite, investment horizon, and goal before making investment decisions.
Going forward
“We anticipate that market dynamics will be influenced by favorable cyclical factors and capex-driven segments such as infrastructure, domestic oriented manufacturing, and utilities should be the beneficiaries,” according to a report by Axis Mutual Fund.
“Investors should invest based on their risk profile and continue allocating via SIPs. We prefer large-cap oriented funds and hence any fresh allocations can be made in diversified funds like large cap, Flexicap and Multicap. Hybrid funds, given their flexibility in asset allocation can also be made part of core portfolio. In thematic funds, the financial sector is trading at attractive valuations and hence can invest in Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) fund.,” according to Monthly Equity Market Insight by Mirae Asset Mutual Fund.