List of worst equity mutual funds (Jan 2013 to Dec 2025)

This is a list of the worst-performing equity mutual funds across every possible five-, four-, and three-period study period from the inception of direct plans (Jan 2013) to Dec 20th 2025.

Some caveats before we begin:  (1) The definition of a “worst mutual fund” is as arbitrary as the definition of a “best mutual fund”. We hope it is a reasonable definition, considering the high fees demanded by the MF industry.

(2) We choose a representative category benchmark and compare the fund’s returns with the benchmark over the above-mentioned periods. The choice of the benchmark is also arbitrary, but reasonably representative at the category level, but perhaps not at the individual fund level.

(3) SEBI mutual fund categorisation rules were implemented by May-June 2018. Some funds (particularly those from smaller AMCs) may have changed significantly in style after that. An exhaustive filtration that accounts for these changes is beyond the scope of this study.

(4) A fund labelled as “worst” means a careful, deeper investigation of its past performance is necessary, particularly if you invest in it or consider future investments.

(5) Your personal experience with these funds may be different! For different holding periods, performance can significantly vary.

How a worst mutual fund is defined

Say 800 five-year return periods are possible, 1025 four-year, and 1300 three-year return periods. We shall define a fund as “worst” if it has beaten the benchmark for less than 50% of the 5Y, 4Y and 3Y return periods.

Using our monthly Equity Mutual Fund Screener, we filter out all funds with a rolling return outperformance consistency of less than 50% over five, four, and three years, provided there are at least 1000 rolling return data points over five years. This will be our definition of a “worst fund”. We make no claim of superiority over this definition. While appreciating that not all readers will agree with the methodology used, we feel this is reasonable.

NOTE: Investors holding these funds need not exit them in a hurry. Please use this as a sign to dig deeper and re-evaluate these funds. A fund not on this list does not mean it is a “good fund” or an outperformer!

The filtration process

A total of 485 equity mutual funds were studied across these categories and benchmarks.

NIfty Largemidcap 250 has 50% of the Nifty 100 and 50% of the Nifty Midcap 150. Compared to our monthly mutual fund screener, we have removed factor index benchmarks and do not compare aggressive hybrid funds with the Nifty 100 TRI, as this comparison can be too harsh.

When more than one index is used for the comparison, a fund could have done well with one index and poorly with another.

Some funds may have changed names (ownership changes) and strategies during the period of this study. As mentioned above, our study is not capable of identifying such changes. Investors in these funds must consider this on a case-by-case basis.

List of the worst performing funds, Jan 2013 to Dec 2025

We are left with  98  funds after applying the above filter (a total of 112 entries since multiple benchmarks were used for the same category).

Investors holding these funds need not exit them quickly. Please use this as a sign to dig deeper and re-evaluate these funds. A fund not on this list does not mean it is a “good fund” or an outperformer!

To reiterate: Investors holding these funds need not exit them quickly. Please use this as a sign to dig deeper and re-evaluate these funds. A fund not on this list does not mean it is a “good fund” or an outperformer!