This article highlights the best-performing equity and hybrid funds, based on their historical performance compared to the Nifty 50 index.

Disclaimer: The Fund names in this article are not recommendations to buy/hold/sell. Mutual funds are subject to market risks. Do not invest real money without adequate research.

📚 Table of Contents

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• What is the concept of relative risk vs. return performance of mutual funds against the market benchmark?
• Which mutual funds have higher returns at lower risk vs the broad market?
• What should investors do with this data?

The ultimate investment goal for mutual fund investors is high returns at low risk. The stock market always offers opportunities to pick up funds that have the potential to give stable returns with lower fluctuations.

Identifying funds that have done well in the past vs. the Nifty 50 index fund can be tricky since getting and analysing the data might be tricky.

This article shows a list of mutual funds based on their historical returns.

What is the concept of relative risk vs. return performance of mutual funds against the market benchmark?

If we split the list of all equity mutual funds then we will end up with four categories:

• funds that give better returns than the Nifty 50 index fund but with lower risk which are ideal for any investor
• funds that give better returns than the Nifty 50 index fund but with higher risk which are great for investors with high risk tolerance
• funds that give lower returns than the Nifty 50 index fund but with lower risk which are good for debt funds
• funds that give lower returns than the Nifty 50 index fund but with higher risk which is a terrible place to be for an equity fund

Incidentally, users of the free Arthgyaan mutual fund portfolio review service will get the above chart created for all funds in their portfolio.

In this article, we will look at the latest list of equity mutual funds, including index funds tracking indices other than the Nifty 50, to check if they are in the best category of higher returns and lower risk.

In the analysis below, we have chosen equity and hybrid mutual funds with higher returns at lower risk using the last three years of market data from AMFI for the period ending 03-Apr-2025. The funds that have fallen the most from their 52-week high levels are presented first.

Which mutual funds have higher returns at lower risk vs the broad market?

Note: This chart represents point-to-point data. The funds in the list will change over time as the future performance of any particular fund is random and cannot be predicted in advance.

Other: FoF Overseas

Fund	Change (%)	NAV (52w high)	Latest NAV
Invesco India Invesco Global Consumer Trends	24.36	11.0237	8.3378
PGIM India Global Equity Opportunities	17.55	52.5900	43.3600
DSP Global Clean Energy	17.28	20.0274	16.5674
Franklin India Feeder Franklin US Opportunities	14.34	87.4572	74.9176
Axis Global Innovation	13.50	14.7400	12.7500
Kotak Global Innovation	13.07	11.5350	10.0269
DSP US Flexible Equity	12.95	67.7569	58.9813
Aditya Birla Sun Life Global Emerging Opportunities	11.34	28.5046	25.2721
HSBC Brazil	11.22	8.1888	7.2703
DSP World Mining	11.14	19.1091	16.9795
Kotak International REIT FOF	11.13	11.1344	9.8947
SBI International Access US Equity FoF	11.04	18.0778	16.0825

Equity: Sectoral or Thematic

Fund	Change (%)	NAV (52w high)	Latest NAV
Tata Digital India	23.63	65.7465	50.2111
Nippon India Taiwan Equity	20.66	12.8198	10.1708
Aditya Birla Sun Life Digital India	19.73	220.9900	177.3800
Aditya Birla Sun Life MNC	18.32	1635.1800	1335.6900
Edelweiss Recently Listed IPO	17.96	31.0795	25.4972
ICICI Prudential Technology	17.29	249.9900	206.7600
Tata Ethical	16.59	493.1378	411.3424
SBI TECHNOLOGY OPPORTUNITIES	15.22	263.8625	223.6947
Aditya Birla Sun Life ESG Integration Strategy	13.84	20.0800	17.3000
Invesco India ESG Integration Strategy	13.84	20.0100	17.2400
SBI Magnum COMMA	13.65	120.1465	103.7498
Axis ESG Integration Strategy	13.51	24.7900	21.4400
Kotak ESG Exclusionary Strategy	13.09	19.4330	16.8900

Equity: Large Mid Cap

Fund	Change (%)	NAV (52w high)	Latest NAV
Aditya Birla Sun Life Equity Advantage	14.22	1061.9200	910.8900

Other: Index Funds

Fund	Change (%)	NAV (52w high)	Latest NAV
UTI Nifty Midcap 150 Quality 50 Index	15.96	15.3743	12.9210
SBI NIFTY INDEX	11.08	240.9277	214.2243

Equity: Flexi Cap

Fund	Change (%)	NAV (52w high)	Latest NAV
Samco Flexi Cap	24.79	13.2300	9.9500
LIC MF Flexi Cap	17.01	117.4158	97.4438
Axis Flexi Cap	12.59	30.5100	26.6700
PGIM India Flexi Cap	11.80	43.7200	38.5600
UTI Flexi Cap	11.58	361.4332	319.5698

Equity: Large Cap

Fund	Change (%)	NAV (52w high)	Latest NAV
LIC MF Large Cap	11.99	66.6131	58.6231
Axis Bluechip	11.01	73.1400	65.0900

Solution: Child Fund

Fund	Change (%)	NAV (52w high)	Latest NAV
LIC MF Childrens	11.64	39.3584	34.7756

Equity: Focused

Fund	Change (%)	NAV (52w high)	Latest NAV
Motilal Oswal Focused 25	25.69	59.9011	44.5101
Mirae Asset Focused	12.64	28.8560	25.2080
Axis Focused	12.46	66.6100	58.3100

Equity: ELSS

Fund	Change (%)	NAV (52w high)	Latest NAV
Axis ELSS Tax Saver	11.35	113.6849	100.7770

Other: FoF Domestic

Fund	Change (%)	NAV (52w high)	Latest NAV
Axis Equity ETFs FOF	17.95	17.0468	13.9870
Mirae Asset ESG Sector Leaders	11.48	19.6940	17.4340

Equity: Small Cap

Fund	Change (%)	NAV (52w high)	Latest NAV
PGIM India Small Cap	15.23	17.9300	15.2000

Equity: Multi Cap

Fund	Change (%)	NAV (52w high)	Latest NAV
Sundaram Multi Cap	15.54	101.0619	85.3581

What should investors do with this data?

There are three key takeaways from this data:

1. Review existing funds: Investors should check if their current funds are on the list and evaluate their next steps, including consulting their advisor. Such funds should be shortlisted for future additional investment
2. Bottom fishing opportunities: Funds in the list might represent bottom-fishing opportunities since their performance has been stable vs. the market index
3. Introduce hybrid funds into the portfolio: This might be a good opportunity to move some portion of the portfolio to hybrid funds that have an allocation to both equity and debt with automated tax-free rebalancing