7 equity mutual fund categories offer over 12% in 2023; small caps give 24% (2024)

Mutual fund investors are extremely happy these days. No wonder, most prominent equity mutual fund categories have offered double-digit returns in 2023. To be precise, seven equity categories offered over 12% in the current year. The toppers have offered even better returns.

Predictably, small cap funds topped the return chart. The small cap category gave an average return of around 24.13% in 2023. The category has around 24 schemes and Mahindra Manulife Small Cap Fund offered the highest return of around 34.65%, followed by Union Small Cap Fund which offered 30.83%.

Mid cap category gave an average return of 18.96% in 2023. The category has around 29 schemes and Mahindra Manulife Mid Cap Fund was the topper in the category. The scheme gave 26.27%, followed by JM Midcap Fund which gave 26.26%.

The multi cap category gave 15.93% average return in 2023 so far. The category has around 16 schemes. Nippon India Multi Cap Fund, the topper in the category, gave 22.41%. HDFC Multi Cap Fund gave 21.24%. Quant Active Fund gave the lowest return of around 6.63%.

Value and contra fund categories gave an average return of around 14.93% and 14.52% respectively. JM Value Fund, the topper in the value fund category, gave 26.53%. Aditya Birla Sun Life Pure Value Fund gave 22.92% in 2023. The contra fund category has three schemes. SBI Contra Fund offered the highest return of around 18.83%, followed by Kotak India EQ Contra Fund which gave 13.49%.

Large & Mid Cap Fund gave an average return of around 13.09% in 2023 so far. The category has around 26 schemes. Motilal Oswal Large & Midcap Fund, the topper in the category, gave 19.24%. HDFC Large and Mid Cap Fund gave 17.86%.

The flexi cap, ELSS, and focused fund categories gave an average return of around 12.22%, 11.47%, and 10.39% respectively. Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund gave the highest return of around 21.40% in the flexi cap category. SBI Long Term Equity Fund, one of the largest scheme in the ELSS category based on assets managed, offered 19.58% in 2023. JM Focused Fund offered the highest return of around 15.63%.

The aggressive hybrid, and balanced advantage and dynamic asset allocation fund categories offered an average return of around 9% in 2023. SBI Equity Hybrid Fund, one of the largest scheme in the category based on assets, gave 6.44%. JM Equity Hybrid Fund gave the highest return of around 18.50%.

Motilal Oswal Balance Advantage Fund gave the highest return of around 21.18%, followed by HDFC Balanced Advantage Fund which offered 15.97%.

The large cap category gave an average return of 8.22% in 2023. Nippon India Large Cap Fund offered the highest return of around 15.55%. LIC MF Large Cap Fund gave the lowest return of around 2.89%.

Equity savings category offered 7.62% average return in 2023. The category has around 22 schemes and SBI Equity Savings Fund gave the maximum return of around 12.59%. Arbitrage funds gave the lowest average return of around 5.78%. The category has around 26 schemes and SBI Arbitrage Opportunities Fund, the topper in the category, gave 6.30% in 2023 so far.

We considered all equity and equity oriented categories such as large cap, mid cap, small cap, large & mid cap, multi cap, flexi cap, focused fund, value & contra fund, aggressive hybrid funds, equity savings, balanced advantage and dynamic asset allocation, and arbitrage funds.

Note, the above exercise is not a recommendation. The purpose of the exercise was to find out the performance of equity mutual fund categories in 2023 so far. One should always make investments or redemption decisions based on risk appetite, investment horizon and goal.

Note, all the above categories have different risks associated with them. One should choose the equity mutual fund category based on the risk appetite.

If you are looking for recommendations, see: Best mutual funds to invest in 2023