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 24-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.

Equity: Sectoral or Thematic

Fund	Change (%)	NAV (52w high)	Latest NAV
Nippon India Taiwan Equity	26.01	12.8198	9.4853
Tata Digital India	25.41	65.7465	49.0413
Aditya Birla Sun Life Digital India	22.97	220.9900	170.2200
ICICI Prudential Technology	20.29	249.9900	199.2700
Aditya Birla Sun Life MNC	17.24	1635.1800	1353.3100
Edelweiss Recently Listed IPO	16.98	31.0795	25.8027
Tata Ethical	16.16	493.1378	413.4676
ICICI Prudential US Bluechip Equity	15.79	72.5600	61.1000
SBI Magnum COMMA	13.93	120.1465	103.4069
Axis Innovation	13.47	20.4900	17.7300
Axis ESG Integration Strategy	11.86	24.7900	21.8500
Aditya Birla Sun Life ESG Integration Strategy	11.60	20.0800	17.7500
Invesco India ESG Integration Strategy	11.29	20.0100	17.7500
Franklin Asian Equity	10.05	32.9471	29.6356

Equity: Flexi Cap

Fund	Change (%)	NAV (52w high)	Latest NAV
Samco Flexi Cap	24.26	13.2300	10.0200
Taurus Flexi Cap	13.06	255.5600	222.1800
Axis Flexi Cap	10.00	30.5100	27.4600

Other: FoF Overseas

Fund	Change (%)	NAV (52w high)	Latest NAV
Invesco India Invesco Global Consumer Trends	26.13	11.0237	8.1435
PGIM India Global Equity Opportunities	20.35	52.5900	41.8900
DSP US Flexible Equity	19.20	67.7569	54.7460
DSP Global Clean Energy	19.13	20.0274	16.1969
Kotak Global Innovation	17.67	11.5350	9.4963
Edelweiss Greater China Equity Offshore	16.70	48.0410	40.0170
Axis Greater China Equity	16.35	8.8100	7.3700
Axis Global Innovation	16.08	14.7400	12.3700
Aditya Birla Sun Life Global Emerging Opportunities	15.20	28.5046	24.1710
PGIM India Emerging Markets Equity	14.69	18.9300	16.1500
Edelweiss US Value Equity Offshore	12.31	37.0080	32.4523
HSBC Brazil	12.18	8.0478	7.0678
Kotak International REIT FOF	12.07	11.1344	9.7902
HSBC Global Equity Climate Change	12.07	11.0761	9.7389
HDFC Developed World Indexes	11.86	15.5730	13.7260
HSBC Asia Pacific Ex Japan Dividend Yield	11.59	25.1926	22.2727
Mahindra Manulife Asia Pacific REITs FOF	10.82	9.6479	8.6037
Kotak Global Emerging Market	10.27	26.3790	23.6690

Equity: Large Mid Cap

Fund	Change (%)	NAV (52w high)	Latest NAV
Aditya Birla Sun Life Equity Advantage	12.98	1061.9200	924.0500

Equity: ELSS

Fund	Change (%)	NAV (52w high)	Latest NAV
Shriram ELSS Tax Saver	16.35	27.0346	22.6138
Aditya Birla Sun Life ELSS Tax Saver	11.34	69.8600	61.9400

Solution: Child Fund

Fund	Change (%)	NAV (52w high)	Latest NAV
LIC MF Childrens	12.51	39.3584	34.4328
UTI Childrens Equity	12.01	100.5860	88.5075

Equity: Multi Cap

Fund	Change (%)	NAV (52w high)	Latest NAV
quant Active	17.96	788.2330	646.6868
Sundaram Multi Cap	14.21	101.0619	86.6996

Equity: Focused

Fund	Change (%)	NAV (52w high)	Latest NAV
Motilal Oswal Focused 25	25.18	59.9011	44.8173
Mirae Asset Focused	10.82	28.8560	25.7330
Union Focused	10.82	27.8200	24.8100

Other: FoF Domestic

Fund	Change (%)	NAV (52w high)	Latest NAV
Tata Nifty India Digital ETF	19.53	16.2891	13.1081
Axis Equity ETFs FOF	17.05	17.0468	14.1405
ICICI Prudential Global Advantage	10.04	17.8253	16.0361

Equity: Small Cap

Fund	Change (%)	NAV (52w high)	Latest NAV
PGIM India Small Cap	13.50	17.9300	15.5100

Other: Index Funds

Fund	Change (%)	NAV (52w high)	Latest NAV
UTI Nifty Midcap 150 Quality 50 Index	15.05	15.3743	13.0606
HDFC NIFTY 100 Index	10.23	16.0349	14.3942

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