Multi-asset mutual funds: performance analysis

Last Updated on September 20, 2025 at 5:25 pm

We analyse the performance of multi-asset mutual funds in this article. This category is only four years old introduced by SEBI in 2018 with the re-categorization of mutual funds. Therefore we shall only look at the last 1,2,3, and 4-year trailing returns of multi-asset funds.

According to SEBI, a multi-asset fund invests in at least three asset classes with a minimum allocation of at least 10% in each asset class. Typically these assets are equity, bonds and gold, although silver should also be acceptable. Foreign equity is not considered a separate asset class but can be part of the equity component.

According to AMFI, “A multi-asset fund offers exposure to a broad number of asset classes, often offering a level of diversification typically associated with institutional investing. Multi-asset funds may invest in traditional equity and fixed-income strategies, index-tracking funds, financial derivatives, and commodities like gold.”

The problem with analysing these funds lies in deciding a suitable benchmark. Each fund in this category is benchmarked to custom indices. For example:

• Axis Triple Advantage Fund: 65% of Nifty 50 TRI + 20% of NIFTY Composite Debt Index + 15% of INR Price of Gold
• SBI Multi-Asset Fund: 45% CRISIL 10 Year Gilt Index + 40% Nifty 50 + 15% Price of Gold
• ICICI Multi-Asset Fund: Nifty 200 (65%) + Nifty Composite Debt Index (25%) + LBMA (Gold)AM Fixing Prices (10%)
• HDFC Multi-asset Fund: 90% NIFTY 50 Hybrid Composite Debt 65:35 Index + 10% Domestic Price of Gold
• Motilal Oswal Multi-asset Fund:30% Nifty 50 TRI + 50 % Crisil Short Term Gilt Index + 10% Domestic Price of Gold + 10% S&P 500 Index (TRI)

Some benchmarks are “equity-oriented” (in terms of taxation), and some are not. Therfore there is a wide range of investment strategies in this category and binning them together is arguably incorrect.

At least to appreciate where each fund stands, we have put together the following benchmark: 65% of Nifty TRI + 20% of  CRISIL Composite Bond Fund Index and 15% of Gold INR. We will refer to this as the Multi-asset index. Of course, the choice of weights is arbitrary.

The CRISIL Composite Bond Fund Index has the following indices(!):

• CRISIL Composite Gilt Index 45.00%
• CRISIL AAA Long Term Bond Index 17.00%
• CRISIL AAA Medium Term Bond Index 11.00%
• CRISIL AAA Short Term Bond Index 20.00%
• CRISIL AA and AA+ Long Term Bond Index 2.00%
• CRISIL AA and AA+ Medium Term Bond Index 2.00%
• CRISIL AA and AA+ Short Term Bond Index 3.00%

The evolution of the multi-asset index, with the constituent indices and the CRISIL Aggressive Hybrid index, is shown below. The data is from the 1st of 2013 (inception of direct plans). The multi-asset index is constructed with a simplistic daily rebalancing. A more detailed analysis will be presented later.

The trailing returns are tabulated below. The multi-asset index returns are marked in blue. Nifty 50 TRI returns in red, and funds with a return higher than the multi-asset index are in green.

Note: Kindly do not make any investment decisions based on these numbers. We need more time to analyse these funds.

It is too early to judge these funds as the history is too short, as we cannot run a rolling returns analysis. It would be great if SEBI mandates the disclosure of respective benchmark data so that each fund can be analysed in detail.