15-year SIP returns for 71 out of 148 equity MFs is less than 10%

Published: August 9, 2020 at 12:38 pm

Last Updated on August 9, 2020 at 12:38 pm

In this 15-year equity mutual fund SIP report, we tabulate returns for 148 equity-oriented mutual funds to find only 71 managed a return greater than 10%, and out of these 71, 17 are sectoral/thematic funds.

What is the objective of this study? The objective is not to choose the best performing funds. That will have no use for the future. Please do not use this list as an investment recommendation! The idea is to recognise how merely running a long-term SIP is simply leaving the fate of your investment to luck. We have already established this via rolling SIP returns: Huge difference in SIP returns from the same fund! How is it possible? and How the fate of your mutual fund SIPs is decided by “timing luck”

Investors, especially newbies who wish to “invest in SIPs” must learn to lower return expectations from their investments. Some people (read distributors) that returns from an equity mutual fund must only be calculated at the “right time” (that is when the market is “up”).

You can calculate it before a crash or after a crash, but a thorough study cannot escape two central conclusions: (1) there is zero guarantees of “high returns” just because you are “disciplined” and keep a SIP running and (2) “long term returns” are consistently moving down. See: 15-year Nifty SIP returns crash to 8% (51% reduction since 2014) and Ten-year Nifty SIP returns have reduced by almost 50% (which was before the 2020 crash!)

How the study was done: A total of 149 equity funds and aggressive hybrid fund 15-year SIP returns were calculated from 1st Aug 2005 to 7th Aug 2020 using ACE MF. The fund’s history, that is changes in investment mandate (as long as it was within equity) was not considered. The only elimination was Quant Small Cap fund which was a debt fund in the past! There could be other such asset class changes but it is not easy to determine this. The full list is given below. We shall first consider the top-20 and bottom-20.

PPF vs 15-year equity SIP

  • Thirty funds got less than 8% returns – this is the PPF benchmark for the last 15 years.
  • 23 funds managed 8-9% returns.
  • 19 funds between 9-10% returns
  • 31 funds between 10-11% returns
  • 17 funds between 11-12%
  • 10 funds between 12-13%
  • 19 funds above 13%

Considering the risk-free, tax-free nature of PPF and considering the extra risk taken while investing in an equity MF, a 2% outperformance expectation is reasonable: 77 out of 148 funds or 52% have managed to this. The chance of a blind SIP beating PPF is just about a coin toss.  Goal-based risk management is the only solution for those who do not wish to leave the fate of their hard-earned money to luck.

Top 20 funds with highest 15-year SIP returns

Scheme NameXIRR(%) 01-Aug-2005 To 07-Aug-2020
Nippon India Pharma Fund18.56
Canara Rob Emerg Equities Fund16.23
ICICI Pru Technology Fund15.70
Aditya Birla SL MNC Fund15.22
ICICI Pru FMCG Fund14.62
SBI Healthcare Opp Fund14.38
SBI Consumption Opp Fund14.37
UTI MNC Fund14.22
Aditya Birla SL India GenNext Fund14.18
SBI Focused Equity Fund14.04
Franklin India Technology Fund14.00
UTI Healthcare Fund13.89
ICICI Pru Value Discovery Fund13.89
L&T Midcap Fund13.62
SBI Magnum Global Fund13.28
UTI Mid Cap Fund13.24
SBI Technology Opp Fund13.16
IDFC Multi Cap Fund13.10
Aditya Birla SL Digital India Fund13.04
UTI Transportation & Logistics Fund12.85

Fourteen of these are sectoral or thematic funds! ICICI Value Discovery is a notable entry

Bottom 20: funds with lowest 15-year SIP returns

Scheme NameXIRR(%) 01-Aug-2005 To 07-Aug-2020
SBI Contra Fund7.53
HDFC Focused 30 Fund7.46
HSBC Small Cap Equity Fund7.40
Baroda ELSS 967.28
Taurus Starshare (Multi Cap) Fund7.18
Baroda Hybrid Equity Fund6.97
JM Large Cap Fund6.92
JM Equity Hybrid Fund6.80
Principal Nifty 100 Equal Weight Fund6.80
JM Value Fund6.71
LIC MF Equity Hybrid Fund6.66
LIC MF Multi Cap Fund6.57
HDFC Growth Opp Fund6.31
DSP India T.I.G.E.R Fund6.28
Taurus Largecap Equity Fund5.99
Nippon India Power & Infra Fund5.56
Tata Infrastructure Fund5.20
ICICI Pru Infrastructure Fund5.16
Sundaram Infra Advantage Fund3.81
UTI Infrastructure Fund3.79

Six of these are thematic funds. The full list is given below.

Summary: Investors need to lower their expectations from equity mutual funds while planning for their goals. There is no guarantee of a high return or even your fund beating PPF just because you “invest in SIP” (which btw is incorrect). The solution is not to exit equity or lower equity exposure. The solution is to focus on corpus growth, corpus value, shift focus from returns to systematic goal-based risk management. This is the reason why I was able to maintain a corpus equal to thirty times my annual expenses throughout the 2020 market crash in spite of my equity MF portfolio return dropping to 2.75% in May 2020 after 12 years of “disciplined” investing.

Full List of 148 15-year SIP returns

Scheme NameXIRR(%) 01-Aug-2005 To 07-Aug-2020
Nippon India Pharma Fund18.56
Canara Rob Emerg Equities Fund16.23
ICICI Pru Technology Fund15.70
Aditya Birla SL MNC Fund15.22
ICICI Pru FMCG Fund14.62
SBI Healthcare Opp Fund14.38
SBI Consumption Opp Fund14.37
UTI MNC Fund14.22
Aditya Birla SL India GenNext Fund14.18
SBI Focused Equity Fund14.04
Franklin India Technology Fund14.00
UTI Healthcare Fund13.89
ICICI Pru Value Discovery Fund13.89
L&T Midcap Fund13.62
SBI Magnum Global Fund13.28
UTI Mid Cap Fund13.24
SBI Technology Opp Fund13.16
IDFC Multi Cap Fund13.10
Aditya Birla SL Digital India Fund13.04
UTI Transportation & Logistics Fund12.85
Canara Rob Equity Tax Saver Fund12.78
Franklin India Prima Fund12.72
Tata Equity P/E Fund12.72
Tata Mid Cap Growth Fund12.65
Sundaram Mid Cap Fund12.42
Canara Rob Equity Hybrid Fund12.32
Quant Active Fund12.31
UTI Equity Fund12.24
Canara Rob Equity Diver Fund12.05
Kotak Equity Opp Fund11.76
DSP Equity Fund11.57
Kotak Small Cap Fund11.55
Aditya Birla SL Equity Fund11.54
DSP Equity Opportunities Fund11.49
Aditya Birla SL Tax Relief ’9611.48
SBI Magnum Midcap Fund11.43
SBI Equity Hybrid Fund11.43
Nippon India Value Fund11.40
SBI Large & Midcap Fund11.34
ICICI Pru LT Equity Fund (Tax Saving)11.26
Aditya Birla SL Frontline Equity Fund11.24
Nippon India Growth Fund11.23
BNP Paribas Multi Cap Fund11.22
Tata India Tax Savings Fund(DP)11.16
DSP Equity & Bond Fund11.11
ICICI Pru Equity & Debt Fund11.03
Taurus Discovery (Midcap) Fund10.98
Tata Ethical Fund10.95
SBI Magnum Equity ESG Fund10.93
Aditya Birla SL Tax Plan10.90
HDFC Capital Builder Value Fund10.88
BNP Paribas Large Cap Fund10.87
Tata Hybrid Equity Fund10.83
Tata Large & Mid Cap Fund10.82
Franklin India Equity Fund10.81
HDFC Long Term Adv Fund10.73
ICICI Pru Midcap Fund10.72
Nippon India Banking Fund10.68
L&T Equity Fund10.57
Aditya Birla SL Midcap Fund10.49
UTI Value Opp Fund10.49
Taurus Tax Shield Fund10.47
UTI Dividend Yield Fund10.45
Kotak India EQ Contra Fund10.45
Aditya Birla SL Equity Hybrid ’95 Fund10.30
Franklin India Taxshield10.28
HDFC Equity Fund10.23
Quant Absolute Fund10.21
Principal Dividend Yield Fund10.20
SBI Magnum Multicap Fund10.19
HDFC Top 100 Fund10.10
Nippon India Multi Cap Fund10.10
Principal Hybrid Equity Fund10.05
ICICI Pru Sensex ETF10.04
Aditya Birla SL Equity Advantage Fund10.02
Principal Tax Savings Fund10.01
Kotak Bluechip Fund10.00
Franklin India Equity Hybrid Fund9.95
ICICI Pru Multicap Fund9.93
Quant Tax Plan9.89
Nippon India Consumption Fund9.86
Sundaram Small Cap Fund9.77
Principal Multi Cap Growth Fund9.75
UTI Mastershare9.71
Nippon India ETF Nifty BeES9.70
SBI Long Term Equity Fund9.46
PGIM India Large Cap Fund9.35
Tata Large Cap Fund9.29
DSP Top 100 Equity Fund9.28
HSBC Multi Cap Equity Fund9.28
ICICI Pru Large & Mid Cap Fund9.25
Franklin India Equity Advantage Fund9.20
ICICI Pru Nifty Index Fund9.19
Aditya Birla SL Dividend Yield Fund9.14
UTI Nifty Index Fund9.06
HDFC Index Fund-Sensex9.05
Sundaram Select Focus8.94
Franklin India Opportunities Fund8.93
HDFC TaxSaver8.91
Franklin India Bluechip Fund8.87
Tata Index Fund-Sensex Plan8.82
HSBC Large Cap Equity Fund8.79
UTI LT Equity Fund (Tax Saving)8.77
Sundaram Diversified Equity8.76
LIC MF Large Cap Fund8.70
HDFC Index Fund-NIFTY 50 Plan8.67
Nippon India Equity Hybrid Fund8.66
Tata Index Fund-Nifty Plan8.64
Franklin India Index Fund-NSE Nifty8.57
Nippon India Tax Saver (ELSS) Fund8.50
Baroda Multi Cap Fund8.46
Aditya Birla SL Index Fund8.44
SBI Nifty Index Fund8.41
Sundaram Equity Hybrid Fund8.34
UTI Hybrid Equity Fund8.29
LIC MF Index Fund-Sensex Plan8.27
LIC MF Tax Plan8.22
HDFC Hybrid Equity Fund8.20
UTI Banking and Financial Services Fund8.16
IDFC Core Equity Fund7.99
LIC MF Index Fund-Nifty Plan7.98
Principal Personal Tax saver Fund7.92
SBI Magnum Comma Fund7.91
Nippon India Vision Fund7.85
PGIM India Hybrid Equity Fund7.85
Kotak Equity Hybrid Fund7.79
Templeton India Value Fund7.65
Quant Mid Cap Fund7.65
SBI Contra Fund7.53
HDFC Focused 30 Fund7.46
HSBC Small Cap Equity Fund7.40
Baroda ELSS 967.28
Taurus Starshare (Multi Cap) Fund7.18
Baroda Hybrid Equity Fund6.97
JM Large Cap Fund6.92
JM Equity Hybrid Fund6.80
Principal Nifty 100 Equal Weight Fund6.80
JM Value Fund6.71
LIC MF Equity Hybrid Fund6.66
LIC MF Multi Cap Fund6.57
HDFC Growth Opp Fund6.31
DSP India T.I.G.E.R Fund6.28
Taurus Largecap Equity Fund5.99
Nippon India Power & Infra Fund5.56
Tata Infrastructure Fund5.20
ICICI Pru Infrastructure Fund5.16
Sundaram Infra Advantage Fund3.81
UTI Infrastructure Fund3.79
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