Which are the high-risk and underperforming mutual funds that can be avoided by investors?

This article categorizes mutual funds based on relative performance, highlighting those offering lower returns at higher risk which can be potentially avoided by investors.

Which are the high-risk and underperforming mutual funds that can be avoided by investors?


Posted on 22 Jan 2025
Author: Sayan Sircar
9 mins read
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This article categorizes mutual funds based on relative performance, highlighting those offering lower returns at higher risk which can be potentially avoided by investors.

Which are the high-risk and underperforming mutual funds that can be avoided by investors?

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.

If you are unhappy with the performance of your mutual funds, you can get a free Mutual Fund Portfolio review.

This article is a part of our detailed article series on the worst performing mutual funds in India. Ensure you have read the other parts here:

๐Ÿ“š Topics covered:

The most basic and simplest equity mutual fund investment that an investor can make is a Nifty 50 Index fund.

Since a diversified index like the Nifty 50 is a decent representative of the stock market, since Nifty 500 and Nifty Total Market funds are quite new, and index funds tracking the Nifty 50 are quite common and popular, it makes a lot of sense to choose active funds that at least attempt to give better returns than the humble Nifty 50 index fund.

By better returns here, we mean, vs. the Nifty 50 index fund,

  • higher returns
  • lower risk (measured via volatility)
  • or both

Funds that donโ€™t give either better returns or have higher volatility than index funds should be carefully reviewed to understand the reason for underperformance.

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

Excess Risk and Return of Funds vs the Nifty 50 TRI

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

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 worst category of lower returns and higher risk.

In the analysis below, we have chosen equity and hybrid mutual funds with worse returns at higher risk using the last three years of market data from AMFI for the period ending 17-Jan-2025. The funds that have fallen the most from their 52-week high levels are presented first.

Which mutual funds have lower returns at higher 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.

Large & Mid Cap category

Fund Fall 52w high NAV NAV (17-Jan-2025)
Aditya Birla Sun Life Equity Advantage -11.50% 1061.9200 939.8300

Sectoral Thematic category

Fund Fall 52w high NAV NAV (17-Jan-2025)
SBI Magnum COMMA -14.09% 120.1465 103.2156
Kotak ESG Exclusionary Strategy -12.88% 19.3890 16.8920
Axis ESG Integration Strategy -10.84% 24.7200 22.0400
Aditya Birla Sun Life ESG Integration Strategy -9.39% 20.0300 18.1500
Nippon India Japan Equity -7.07% 22.1703 20.6033
Franklin Asian Equity -6.87% 32.9471 30.6830
Aditya Birla Sun Life International Equity -2.19% 38.7708 37.9205

Large Cap category

Fund Fall 52w high NAV NAV (17-Jan-2025)
PGIM India Large Cap -15.08% 32.8200 27.8700
Axis Bluechip -11.41% 72.9300 64.6100
LIC MF Large Cap -10.09% 66.5642 59.8474

ELSS category

Fund Fall 52w high NAV NAV (17-Jan-2025)
UTI ELSS Tax Saver -11.87% 246.1668 216.9358
Axis ELSS Tax Saver -10.93% 113.6083 101.1868

Flexi Cap category

Fund Fall 52w high NAV NAV (17-Jan-2025)
Axis Flexi Cap -9.95% 30.4600 27.4300
PGIM India Flexi Cap -9.41% 43.4500 39.3600
UTI - Flexi Cap -8.70% 360.1385 328.8214

Focused category

Fund Fall 52w high NAV NAV (17-Jan-2025)
Axis Focused -11.86% 66.3700 58.5000

Index Funds category

Fund Fall 52w high NAV NAV (17-Jan-2025)
LIC MF BSE Sensex Index -10.38% 170.6684 152.9552
HDFC BSE Sensex Index -10.35% 805.0363 721.6756
ICICI Prudential BSE Sensex Index -10.35% 28.0884 25.1826
Nippon India Index -10.34% 45.7462 41.0166
Tata S&P BSE Sensex Index -10.26% 225.7186 202.5605
Navi Nifty Bank Index -9.89% 14.0786 12.6866
Motilal Oswal Nifty Bank Index -9.85% 19.8419 17.8866

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What should investors do with this data?

Related:
Analyze Your Mutual Fund Portfolio for Free with Arthgyaan's Mutual Fund Review Service

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.
  2. Bottom fishing opportunities: Funds in the list might represent bottom-fishing opportunities if you can make a case that the underperformance is a buying opportunity for a lump sum investment.
  3. Exit active funds in the portfolio: This might be a good opportunity to move off to index funds to avoid future underperformance

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This post titled Which are the high-risk and underperforming mutual funds that can be avoided by investors? first appeared on 22 Jan 2025 at https://arthgyaan.com


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