Which mutual funds did investors prefer in 2020?

Published: January 25, 2021 at 11:57 am

Last Updated on January 25, 2021 at 11:57 am

In this article, we list the mutual funds investors preferred in 2020 by estimating fund inflows. Yesterday, we discussed the AUM change in Parag Parikh Flexicap Fund: and how it grew by 147% in 2020! Today we considered the AUM change of 746 mutual funds in 2020. As many as 133 funds registered a 100% plus increase in AUM.

The NAV of 40 mutual funds grew by more than 25% in 2020 (Dec 31st 2019 to Dec 31st 2020).  With these nine funds registered a 50% plus annual return.

  1. DSP Healthcare Fund-Reg(G)
  2. Quant Small Cap Fund(G)
  3. Mirae Asset Healthcare Fund-Reg(G)
  4. PGIM India Global Equity Opp Fund(G)
  5. ICICI Pru Technology Fund(G)
  6. Aditya Birla SL Digital India Fund(G)
  7. IDBI Healthcare Fund-Reg(G)
  8. Aditya Birla SL Pharma & Healthcare Fund-Reg(G)
  9. Motilal Oswal Nasdaq 100 FOF-Reg(G)

As pointed out in yesterday’s article Quant Small Cap Fund registered a 4708% increase in inflow (4783% increase in AUM minus 75% increase in NAV). PGIM Indian Global Equity and Motilal Oswal Nasdaq 100 FOF also saw a heavy inflow of funds which is hardly surprising. Read more: PGIM India Global Equity Opportunities Fund Review: Should You Invest?

Scheme Name% increase in inflow
Quant Small Cap Fund(G)4708%
PGIM India Global Equity Opp Fund(G)1832%
Motilal Oswal Nasdaq 100 FOF-Reg(G)990%
DSP Healthcare Fund-Reg(G)252%
Mirae Asset Healthcare Fund-Reg(G)156%
ICICI Pru Technology Fund(G)119%
Aditya Birla SL Pharma & Healthcare Fund-Reg(G)114%
IDBI Healthcare Fund-Reg(G)61%
Aditya Birla SL Digital India Fund(G)42%

Investors’ also bet big on pharma in the year of the pandemic. Another 33 funds returned between 50% to 25%.


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List of funds with annual returns between 25% to 50%

Scheme Name% increase in inflow
Quant Active Fund(G)1123%
Quant Multi-Asset Fund(G)1103%
Quant Consumption Fund(G)493%
ICICI Pru Commodities Fund(G)425%
ICICI Pru Regular Gold Savings Fund(FOF)(G)385%
Motilal Oswal Nifty Smallcap 250 Index Fund-Reg(G)361%
Quant Absolute Fund(G)325%
JM Low Duration Fund(G)317%
PGIM India Midcap Opp Fund-Reg(G)307%
Parag Parikh Tax Saver Fund-Reg(G)282%
PGIM India Diversified Equity Fund-Reg(G)265%
HDFC Gold Fund(G)263%
Kotak Gold Fund(G)261%
DSP Quant Fund-Reg(G)260%
Axis Gold Fund-Reg(G)236%
Quantum Gold Saving Fund(G)-Direct Plan220%
Motilal Oswal Nifty Midcap 150 Index Fund-Reg(G)215%
Kotak Global Emerging Mkt Fund(G)203%
Quant Tax Plan(G)192%
Invesco India Gold Fund(G)168%
Quant Infrastructure Fund(G)163%
Aditya Birla SL Gold Fund(G)161%
SBI Technology Opp Fund-Reg(D)127%
Kotak Asset Allocator Fund(G)126%
DSP World Gold Fund-Reg(G)116%
Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund-Reg(G)115%
Quant Mid Cap Fund(G)102%
Axis Growth Opp Fund-Reg(G)98%
SBI Gold-Reg(G)96%
DSP World Mining Fund-Reg(G)93%
Franklin India Feeder – Franklin U.S. Opportunities Fund(G)92%
Axis Midcap Fund-Reg(G)80%
SBI Small Cap Fund-Reg(G)76%

Quant funds, gold funds and mid/small cap funds are some prominent entries.

List of funds with the highest increase in inflows

Suppose we sort by the increase in inflow, as many as 47 funds registered more than 200% increase! Notice debt funds (driven by banks?) in the top 10.

Scheme Name% increase in inflow
Kotak Floating Rate Fund-Reg(G)54536%
Quant Small Cap Fund(G)4708%
PGIM India Emerging Markets Equity Fund(G)2381%
Axis Corp Debt Fund-Reg(G)2150%
PGIM India Global Equity Opp Fund(G)1832%
Quant Active Fund(G)1123%
Quant Multi-Asset Fund(G)1103%
Motilal Oswal Nasdaq 100 FOF-Reg(G)990%
Quant Consumption Fund(G)493%
DSP World Energy Fund-Reg(G)460%
ICICI Pru Commodities Fund(G)425%
Axis Dynamic Bond Fund-Reg(G)420%
ICICI Pru Regular Gold Savings Fund(FOF)(G)385%
IDFC G-Sec-Invest-Reg(G)366%
Motilal Oswal Nifty Smallcap 250 Index Fund-Reg(G)361%
HSBC Overnight Fund-Reg(G)338%
Axis Money Market Fund-Reg(G)331%
Canara Rob Bluechip Equity Fund-Reg(G)331%
Quant Absolute Fund(G)325%
Invesco India Corporate Bond Fund(G)319%
JM Low Duration Fund(G)317%
Edelweiss Money Market Fund-Reg(G)313%
PGIM India Midcap Opp Fund-Reg(G)307%
ICICI Pru Global Advantage Fund(FOF)(G)289%
Axis Gilt Fund-Reg(G)282%
Parag Parikh Tax Saver Fund-Reg(G)282%
ICICI Pru Constant Maturity Gilt Fund(G)276%
PGIM India Diversified Equity Fund-Reg(G)265%
HDFC Gold Fund(G)263%
Kotak Gold Fund(G)261%
DSP Quant Fund-Reg(G)260%
Motilal Oswal Nifty 500 Fund-Reg(G)256%
ICICI Pru Sensex Index Fund(G)253%
DSP Healthcare Fund-Reg(G)252%
Axis Overnight Fund-Reg(G)244%
BNP Paribas Short Term Fund(G)243%
SBI Banking and PSU Fund-Reg(G)242%
L&T Arbitrage Opp Fund-Reg(G)238%
Axis Gold Fund-Reg(G)236%
Axis Short Term Fund-Reg(G)230%
Edelweiss Banking and PSU Debt Fund-Reg(G)226%
Quantum Gold Saving Fund(G)-Direct Plan220%
Motilal Oswal Nifty Midcap 150 Index Fund-Reg(G)215%
Motilal Oswal Nifty Bank Index Fund-Reg(G)207%
Parag Parikh Liquid Fund-Reg(G)205%
Kotak Global Emerging Mkt Fund(G)203%
Mirae Asset Dynamic Bond Fund-Reg(G)202%

The market crash and the pandemic possibly triggered the increase in gold AUM.

Index funds

Finally, we list the increase in the inflow of index funds.

Scheme Name% increase in inflow
Motilal Oswal Nifty Smallcap 250 Index Fund-Reg(G)361%
Tata Index Fund-Nifty Plan(G)352%
Motilal Oswal Nifty 500 Fund-Reg(G)256%
ICICI Pru Sensex Index Fund(G)253%
Motilal Oswal Nifty Midcap 150 Index Fund-Reg(G)215%
Motilal Oswal Nifty Bank Index Fund-Reg(G)207%
Tata Index Fund-Sensex Plan(G)195%
Nippon India Index Fund – Sensex Plan(G)177%
DSP NIFTY 50 Index Fund-Reg(G)154%
HDFC Index Fund-Sensex(G)140%
ICICI Pru Nifty Index Fund(G)124%
Motilal Oswal Nifty Next 50 Index Fund-Reg(G)114%
HDFC Index Fund-NIFTY 50 Plan(G)110%
Motilal Oswal Nifty 50 Index Fund-Reg(G)79%
SBI Nifty Index Fund-Reg(G)66%
UTI Nifty Index Fund-Reg(G)58%
DSP NIFTY Next 50 Index Fund-Reg(G)55%
Aditya Birla SL Index Fund-Reg(G)42%
LIC MF Index Fund-Sensex Plan(G)27%
IDFC Nifty Fund-Reg(G)22%
UTI Nifty Next 50 Index Fund-Reg(G)20%
Franklin India Index Fund-NSE Nifty(G)16%
ICICI Pru Nifty Next 50 Index Fund(G)15%
LIC MF Index Fund-Nifty Plan(G)9%
Principal Nifty 100 Equal Weight Fund(G)6%
Taurus Ethical Fund-Reg(G)3%
Sundaram Smart NIFTY 100 Eq Weight Fund-Reg(G)-1%
IDBI Nifty Index Fund(G)-3%
DSP Equal Nifty 50 Fund-Reg(G)-4%
Taurus Nifty Index Fund-Reg(G)-7%
IDBI Nifty Junior Index Fund(G)-21%
Axis Nifty 100 Index Fund-Reg(G)-22%

The drop in inflow to Axis NIfty 100 and equal-weight index funds is conspicuous. Sensex funds seem to have increased in popularity in 2020. Established funds from ICICI (NN50) and UTI registered healthy but smaller increases. How will the AUM of these funds change in 2021?

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