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”).
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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 Name | XIRR(%) 01-Aug-2005 To 07-Aug-2020 |
| Nippon India Pharma Fund | 18.56 |
| Canara Rob Emerg Equities Fund | 16.23 |
| ICICI Pru Technology Fund | 15.70 |
| Aditya Birla SL MNC Fund | 15.22 |
| ICICI Pru FMCG Fund | 14.62 |
| SBI Healthcare Opp Fund | 14.38 |
| SBI Consumption Opp Fund | 14.37 |
| UTI MNC Fund | 14.22 |
| Aditya Birla SL India GenNext Fund | 14.18 |
| SBI Focused Equity Fund | 14.04 |
| Franklin India Technology Fund | 14.00 |
| UTI Healthcare Fund | 13.89 |
| ICICI Pru Value Discovery Fund | 13.89 |
| L&T Midcap Fund | 13.62 |
| SBI Magnum Global Fund | 13.28 |
| UTI Mid Cap Fund | 13.24 |
| SBI Technology Opp Fund | 13.16 |
| IDFC Multi Cap Fund | 13.10 |
| Aditya Birla SL Digital India Fund | 13.04 |
| UTI Transportation & Logistics Fund | 12.85 |
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 Name | XIRR(%) 01-Aug-2005 To 07-Aug-2020 |
| SBI Contra Fund | 7.53 |
| HDFC Focused 30 Fund | 7.46 |
| HSBC Small Cap Equity Fund | 7.40 |
| Baroda ELSS 96 | 7.28 |
| Taurus Starshare (Multi Cap) Fund | 7.18 |
| Baroda Hybrid Equity Fund | 6.97 |
| JM Large Cap Fund | 6.92 |
| JM Equity Hybrid Fund | 6.80 |
| Principal Nifty 100 Equal Weight Fund | 6.80 |
| JM Value Fund | 6.71 |
| LIC MF Equity Hybrid Fund | 6.66 |
| LIC MF Multi Cap Fund | 6.57 |
| HDFC Growth Opp Fund | 6.31 |
| DSP India T.I.G.E.R Fund | 6.28 |
| Taurus Largecap Equity Fund | 5.99 |
| Nippon India Power & Infra Fund | 5.56 |
| Tata Infrastructure Fund | 5.20 |
| ICICI Pru Infrastructure Fund | 5.16 |
| Sundaram Infra Advantage Fund | 3.81 |
| UTI Infrastructure Fund | 3.79 |
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 Name | XIRR(%) 01-Aug-2005 To 07-Aug-2020 |
| Nippon India Pharma Fund | 18.56 |
| Canara Rob Emerg Equities Fund | 16.23 |
| ICICI Pru Technology Fund | 15.70 |
| Aditya Birla SL MNC Fund | 15.22 |
| ICICI Pru FMCG Fund | 14.62 |
| SBI Healthcare Opp Fund | 14.38 |
| SBI Consumption Opp Fund | 14.37 |
| UTI MNC Fund | 14.22 |
| Aditya Birla SL India GenNext Fund | 14.18 |
| SBI Focused Equity Fund | 14.04 |
| Franklin India Technology Fund | 14.00 |
| UTI Healthcare Fund | 13.89 |
| ICICI Pru Value Discovery Fund | 13.89 |
| L&T Midcap Fund | 13.62 |
| SBI Magnum Global Fund | 13.28 |
| UTI Mid Cap Fund | 13.24 |
| SBI Technology Opp Fund | 13.16 |
| IDFC Multi Cap Fund | 13.10 |
| Aditya Birla SL Digital India Fund | 13.04 |
| UTI Transportation & Logistics Fund | 12.85 |
| Canara Rob Equity Tax Saver Fund | 12.78 |
| Franklin India Prima Fund | 12.72 |
| Tata Equity P/E Fund | 12.72 |
| Tata Mid Cap Growth Fund | 12.65 |
| Sundaram Mid Cap Fund | 12.42 |
| Canara Rob Equity Hybrid Fund | 12.32 |
| Quant Active Fund | 12.31 |
| UTI Equity Fund | 12.24 |
| Canara Rob Equity Diver Fund | 12.05 |
| Kotak Equity Opp Fund | 11.76 |
| DSP Equity Fund | 11.57 |
| Kotak Small Cap Fund | 11.55 |
| Aditya Birla SL Equity Fund | 11.54 |
| DSP Equity Opportunities Fund | 11.49 |
| Aditya Birla SL Tax Relief ’96 | 11.48 |
| SBI Magnum Midcap Fund | 11.43 |
| SBI Equity Hybrid Fund | 11.43 |
| Nippon India Value Fund | 11.40 |
| SBI Large & Midcap Fund | 11.34 |
| ICICI Pru LT Equity Fund (Tax Saving) | 11.26 |
| Aditya Birla SL Frontline Equity Fund | 11.24 |
| Nippon India Growth Fund | 11.23 |
| BNP Paribas Multi Cap Fund | 11.22 |
| Tata India Tax Savings Fund(DP) | 11.16 |
| DSP Equity & Bond Fund | 11.11 |
| ICICI Pru Equity & Debt Fund | 11.03 |
| Taurus Discovery (Midcap) Fund | 10.98 |
| Tata Ethical Fund | 10.95 |
| SBI Magnum Equity ESG Fund | 10.93 |
| Aditya Birla SL Tax Plan | 10.90 |
| HDFC Capital Builder Value Fund | 10.88 |
| BNP Paribas Large Cap Fund | 10.87 |
| Tata Hybrid Equity Fund | 10.83 |
| Tata Large & Mid Cap Fund | 10.82 |
| Franklin India Equity Fund | 10.81 |
| HDFC Long Term Adv Fund | 10.73 |
| ICICI Pru Midcap Fund | 10.72 |
| Nippon India Banking Fund | 10.68 |
| L&T Equity Fund | 10.57 |
| Aditya Birla SL Midcap Fund | 10.49 |
| UTI Value Opp Fund | 10.49 |
| Taurus Tax Shield Fund | 10.47 |
| UTI Dividend Yield Fund | 10.45 |
| Kotak India EQ Contra Fund | 10.45 |
| Aditya Birla SL Equity Hybrid ’95 Fund | 10.30 |
| Franklin India Taxshield | 10.28 |
| HDFC Equity Fund | 10.23 |
| Quant Absolute Fund | 10.21 |
| Principal Dividend Yield Fund | 10.20 |
| SBI Magnum Multicap Fund | 10.19 |
| HDFC Top 100 Fund | 10.10 |
| Nippon India Multi Cap Fund | 10.10 |
| Principal Hybrid Equity Fund | 10.05 |
| ICICI Pru Sensex ETF | 10.04 |
| Aditya Birla SL Equity Advantage Fund | 10.02 |
| Principal Tax Savings Fund | 10.01 |
| Kotak Bluechip Fund | 10.00 |
| Franklin India Equity Hybrid Fund | 9.95 |
| ICICI Pru Multicap Fund | 9.93 |
| Quant Tax Plan | 9.89 |
| Nippon India Consumption Fund | 9.86 |
| Sundaram Small Cap Fund | 9.77 |
| Principal Multi Cap Growth Fund | 9.75 |
| UTI Mastershare | 9.71 |
| Nippon India ETF Nifty BeES | 9.70 |
| SBI Long Term Equity Fund | 9.46 |
| PGIM India Large Cap Fund | 9.35 |
| Tata Large Cap Fund | 9.29 |
| DSP Top 100 Equity Fund | 9.28 |
| HSBC Multi Cap Equity Fund | 9.28 |
| ICICI Pru Large & Mid Cap Fund | 9.25 |
| Franklin India Equity Advantage Fund | 9.20 |
| ICICI Pru Nifty Index Fund | 9.19 |
| Aditya Birla SL Dividend Yield Fund | 9.14 |
| UTI Nifty Index Fund | 9.06 |
| HDFC Index Fund-Sensex | 9.05 |
| Sundaram Select Focus | 8.94 |
| Franklin India Opportunities Fund | 8.93 |
| HDFC TaxSaver | 8.91 |
| Franklin India Bluechip Fund | 8.87 |
| Tata Index Fund-Sensex Plan | 8.82 |
| HSBC Large Cap Equity Fund | 8.79 |
| UTI LT Equity Fund (Tax Saving) | 8.77 |
| Sundaram Diversified Equity | 8.76 |
| LIC MF Large Cap Fund | 8.70 |
| HDFC Index Fund-NIFTY 50 Plan | 8.67 |
| Nippon India Equity Hybrid Fund | 8.66 |
| Tata Index Fund-Nifty Plan | 8.64 |
| Franklin India Index Fund-NSE Nifty | 8.57 |
| Nippon India Tax Saver (ELSS) Fund | 8.50 |
| Baroda Multi Cap Fund | 8.46 |
| Aditya Birla SL Index Fund | 8.44 |
| SBI Nifty Index Fund | 8.41 |
| Sundaram Equity Hybrid Fund | 8.34 |
| UTI Hybrid Equity Fund | 8.29 |
| LIC MF Index Fund-Sensex Plan | 8.27 |
| LIC MF Tax Plan | 8.22 |
| HDFC Hybrid Equity Fund | 8.20 |
| UTI Banking and Financial Services Fund | 8.16 |
| IDFC Core Equity Fund | 7.99 |
| LIC MF Index Fund-Nifty Plan | 7.98 |
| Principal Personal Tax saver Fund | 7.92 |
| SBI Magnum Comma Fund | 7.91 |
| Nippon India Vision Fund | 7.85 |
| PGIM India Hybrid Equity Fund | 7.85 |
| Kotak Equity Hybrid Fund | 7.79 |
| Templeton India Value Fund | 7.65 |
| Quant Mid Cap Fund | 7.65 |
| SBI Contra Fund | 7.53 |
| HDFC Focused 30 Fund | 7.46 |
| HSBC Small Cap Equity Fund | 7.40 |
| Baroda ELSS 96 | 7.28 |
| Taurus Starshare (Multi Cap) Fund | 7.18 |
| Baroda Hybrid Equity Fund | 6.97 |
| JM Large Cap Fund | 6.92 |
| JM Equity Hybrid Fund | 6.80 |
| Principal Nifty 100 Equal Weight Fund | 6.80 |
| JM Value Fund | 6.71 |
| LIC MF Equity Hybrid Fund | 6.66 |
| LIC MF Multi Cap Fund | 6.57 |
| HDFC Growth Opp Fund | 6.31 |
| DSP India T.I.G.E.R Fund | 6.28 |
| Taurus Largecap Equity Fund | 5.99 |
| Nippon India Power & Infra Fund | 5.56 |
| Tata Infrastructure Fund | 5.20 |
| ICICI Pru Infrastructure Fund | 5.16 |
| Sundaram Infra Advantage Fund | 3.81 |
| UTI Infrastructure Fund | 3.79 |
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